Martina Navratilova has urged Iga Swiatek to work on her serve following her 2024 Australian Open exit.
On Saturday, January 20, Czech teenager Linda Noskova got here from a set all the way down to beat Swiatek 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 within the third spherical of the Melbourne Main. With the win, she broke the World No.1’s 18-match unbeaten run and registered one of many upsets of the event.
Swiatek is understood for routinely tweaking her recreation. Within the low season final yr, she barely altered her serve, reverting to a former movement. Talking about this earlier than the Australian Open, she mentioned:
“Sometimes when I got more tight, it got a little bit worse. Hopefully, we can avoid that with my new serve.”
After Swiatek’s defeat to Noskova, 18-time Main winner Navratilova said that she was not proud of Pole’s new serve and urged her to work on it.
“I’m not thrilled with Iga’s new serve, it looks awkward. And I just don’t see that she’s getting any more out of it and it just looks really uncomfortable. And she needs to get more free points, that’s where she can improve the most I think, with her serve,” she instructed Tennis Channel.
“I just don’t like it, it will not repeat itself under pressure because she just kind of goes and stops. It’s just not fluid at all. And when you’re not fluid, when you stop, when you get nervous, you stop at different places and then you just don’t get that rhythm. So I think she can tinker with that serve, go back closer to what she was like, maybe change it up a little bit but has to be fluid. It’s not, it’s really awkward looking,” she added.
Iga Swiatek on 2024 Australian Open exit: “Sometimes I don’t even understand”
After her 2024 Australian Open exit, Iga Swiatek said that she was at a loss to clarify how she felt. After beginning the match strongly by profitable the opening set, she misplaced the second set and Linda Noskova broke serve twice to win the decider.
At a press convention after the defeat, Swiatek mentioned that she didn’t perceive how she felt in regards to the outcome.
“Why do you need to understand [how I feel]? Sometimes I don’t even understand, so I don’t know if you will. I mean, I really wasn’t expecting a lot. I just tried to do the best kind of work possible. I felt today that, OK, I wasn’t playing my best game, and I had many things that didn’t work in previous rounds,” she mentioned.
Regardless of not progressing previous the fourth spherical in Melbourne, Swiatek mentioned that she was feeling constructive about the remainder of the season.
“This year I feel like I just want to get back to work. I know I’m going to have plenty of chances during the season to show my game,” she added.
