Former WTA stars disagree over Iga Swiatek’s serve as ‘unfair’ criticism called out
Iga Swiatek’s serve has sparked debate between two former WTA stars, with Andrea Petkovic branding Rennae Stubbs’ assessment unfair.
Swiatek has made tweaks to her service motion in recent years as she looks to maximise a shot that does not quite match the lofty heights of her strongest attributes.
After appointing Wim Fissette as her coach in October, the five-time Grand Slam champion was clear about the area of her game that she wanted to develop the most.
“I think it’s kind of obvious. I for sure want to improve my serve, as I’ve been doing for past years,” the world No 2 said during the 2024 WTA Finals.
“I feel like I still need to continue that. For sure I’m not a complete player.”
Despite Swiatek’s efforts, Stubbs — a former doubles world No 1 — slammed the Pole’s serve in the aftermath of her shock loss to Alex Eala at the Miami Open.
“She should have a much better serve,” said Stubbs on an episode of her podcast.
“I absolutely hate her service motion. It is so discombobulated. It’s like she takes the arm there, then the foot comes way too much to the front of her body.”
The six-time Grand Slam doubles titlist added: “She has like three hitches, she is very front on, her ball toss is way too far to the right. There is a lot of things she could improve to get a better serve and get more free points on her serve and become more of a weapon.”
Responding to Stubbs on the same podcast, Petkovic took issue with the Australian’s criticism and defended Swiatek, pointing out the work the 23-year-old has put into her serve.
“She was serving exclusively kick serves and now she also has the body serve,” said the German, who is a former world No 9.
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“Yes, she should be able to serve the slice serve but that is not fair to say that she has not developed her serve.
“She has worked on it so much that I think she gets confused on it sometimes. I called the match against Elena Svitolina and she had completely lost rhythm on her serve, but she was returning really well.
“Iga’s weapon was never her serve. It was her baseline game and return, that’s why she has never developed it. I agree she needs to develop it, and that is what they are doing.
“But it’s not fair to say she has a bad serve compared to Keys and Andreeva, whose weapon is the serve is and has been since they were 15.
“You have to compare to someone like Svitolina who never had a good serve and then came back from the baby break and all of a sudden could serve 120mph.”
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