Iga Swiatek makes ‘shaky’ confession as she admits new coach Wim Fissette ‘noticed’ mistakes
Iga Swiatek produced an erratic display against Coco Gauff at the WTA Finals and afterwards she acknowledged that she was “rusty in the head” and also needed to work on her serve.
Following her extended break from the sport, Swiatek returned to action at the season-ending event in Riyadh and she struggled to a 4-6, 7–5, 6–2 win over Barbora Krejcikova in her opening match.
Two days later she tasted defeat as she lost to Gauff for only the second time in her career, going down 6-3, 6-4.
The result not only puts her place for qualification for the semi-finals in doubt, but it also resulted in Aryna Sabalenka being crowned year-end No 1 ahead of Swiatek as the Pole had to win all three her round-robin matches in order to have any chance of returning to the top of the WTA Rankings.
Swiatek faced a total of 12 break points against Gauff and she was broken twice in the first set and three times in the second set by the American.
“I know what mistakes I made and this match will force me to be more disciplined in the future. I know when I made bad decisions, which shots failed and how not to repeat them,” the world No 2 told Canal+ Sport after the match.
She added: “My serve is sometimes shaky. There were games where I served great, but there were also games when I felt strange. Next time I will try to make it much more stable.”
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The WTA Finals is Swiatek’s first tournament since teaming up with Wim Fissette as she admits they have work to do following her scrappy performance against Gauff.
The 23-year-old – who hadn’t featured on the WTA Tour since the US Open in September – later added in the post-match press conference that Fissette had picked up on her service mistakes.
“We both noticed what mistakes I made. I think I didn’t rotate the ball enough, because towards the end I played flat and forcefully, which is not my style,” she explained.
“However, because of the fact that I am ‘rusty in the head’, I made the same mistakes when approaching the ball. I have to force myself so that next time it won’t be like that.”
Swiatek now has to beat Jessica Pegula in her final group match and hope that Gauff defeats Krejcikova if she is to qualify for the last four.
“Despite this defeat, I will continue playing and I will be able to fully concentrate on the next match. I don’t feel like this tournament is over for me.”
