‘Perfectionist’ Swiatek wants grass improvement

WIMBLEDON, England (AP):

SHORTLY AFTER Iga Swiatek completed the most lopsided French Open final in 17 years, ceding a grand total of three games against an overmatched opponent to claim a third consecutive title in Paris, she was asked whether that represented a perfect performance.

Swiatek’s mind immediately went to what little went wrong in Court Philippe Chatrier that afternoon.

“Obviously, I mean, I got broken at the beginning,” she said, “so it wasn’t maybe perfect.”

A few minutes later, Swiatek used the word “perfectionist” to describe herself, perhaps offering some insight as to how she is approaching Wimbledon, the grass-court major that begins tomorrow – and the only Grand Slam tournament where she hasn’t been past the quarterfinals.

“Overall, tennis is different on grass,” said Swiatek, who was a junior champion at the All England Club in 2018. “I’ll just see and I’ll work hard to play better there.”

The 23-year-old from Poland has won four of the past five trophies on the red clay at Roland Garros, capped by a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Jasmine Paolini for the championship on June 8.

‘It’s not easy’

How does a player beat Swiatek on clay?

“It’s hard. You have to err very little. Match her intensity. Play deep shots. Try to be aggressive whenever there’s an easier ball,” said Paolini, who is now ranked in the top 10 but hardly looked that calibre in the final. “But it’s not easy. It wasn’t for me, and it’s a challenge that is the most difficult thing in women’s tennis at the moment. How to do it? I don’t know.”

Swiatek was also the 2022 champion at the hard-court US Open and made it to the Australian Open semifinals on that surface earlier that season. But she is just 9-4 on the grass of the All England Club, by far her worst winning percentage at a Slam.

For someone who talks a lot about wanting to get “better and better,” not to mention someone who wants to do things perfectly on and off the court, it would make sense if she wanted to improve at Wimbledon.

Specifically, that might entail using her serve and her volleys to accumulate more easy points on the slick surface.

As it is, there isn’t much time spent on grass during the grind of the season, and Swiatek pulled out of a tuneup event on that surface after the French Open. She thinks – hopes? – that “competing every year at Wimbledon and practising these couple of weeks makes you progress” on grass, and noted that while she at one point considered a training block on it during the offseason, her coach put a stop to that.