Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic hit by the same problem – and it will be hard to correct
Iga Swiatek on a clay court has tended to set alarm bells ringing for her opponents, but that mindset may have shifted this year.
After a challenging few months that have seen Swiatek struggle to find her consistency and slump to some shock defeats, the Polish star is facing a crucial few weeks that will see her defend a massive 4,000 WTA ranking points.
Those points were amassed in her win at the Madrid and Rome WTA 1000 tournaments and another French Open win that ensured she had an aura on clay that sent shivers down the spine of her opponents before they dared to step with her.
That has been shaken by the events of the last year and after Jelena Ostapenko hammered Swiatek into submission in the Stuttgart clay court contest earlier this month, she arrived in Madrid with questions to answer.
While she has made it through to the quarter-finals with a win against world No 13 Diana Shnaider, the manner of her victory leaves more question marks.
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The first set was a snapshot of the Swiatek of old as she recorded yet another 6-0 opening set and the expectation was that she would back that up with a convincing win.
Yet this is a very different Swiatek and the uncertainty around her game was in evidence as she faced nine break points in a set laced with errors and eventually lost out against Shnaider in the tie-break.
To her credit, Swiatek found a way to come through despite more scares on her serve in the deciding set and her 6-0, 6-7(3), 6-4 win was a tribute to her battling qualities.
Yet her upcoming opponents will not be looking at Swiatek as a winning machine on her current form, despite her positive comments after the match.
“I think I moved better, and I spin the ball a little bit more,” she said as she looked back on the third set.
“In second set it got pretty windy, and I didn’t move my legs properly. I played some shots like not being ready, you know, so for sure that kind of kept my rhythm off. And then Diana also used her chances, and she was more proactive than in the first set. So I think it was a mix of different things.
“I treat every point the same way. I don’t feel like I need to change anything on break points. I just trust that it’s going to work. That mindset, I think, helps with tension a little bit.”
They may be at different ends of their careers, but Swiatek’s status at this point in the clay court season is similar to that of 24-time Grand Slam winning legend Novak Djokovic.
While the Serbian legend was always going to wane at some point in his career, his opponents were often beaten by his reputation as much as a his brilliance on court over the last two decades.
Swiatek has a similar scenario in her favour as she reigned supreme as the queen of the women’s game, especially on clay courts.
Yet her opponents can now see dips in form and mental frailties that were not so obvious until recently and that means she is more vulnerable than she has been in recent years.
On current form, Swiatek is not the favourite to win in Madrid and she may also drop ranking points in the upcoming WTA 1000 event in Rome.
So by the time she gets to Roland Garros, this magnificent player may well be under huge pressure to avoid a major slide in the rankings.
Swiatek needs to find her best form quickly to confirm she is still the force she always was on clay, but fixing the doubts she now has in her mind when the pressure is applied will not be easy.
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