Will Iga Świątek Win the RG TItle Tomorrow

[jimlosaltos]

Will Iga Świątek continue her tremendous winning streak and take the French title over 18 yo Coco tomorrow, Saturday?
Of will an American teen win at Roland Garros.
Here's an close up to complement this month's Tour Portrait of the 20 yo women's number one.
And here's a link to her debut on TPN in this months' Tour Portrait, all photos from her WTA 1000 win at Indian Wells this march.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members/tourportraits/jim_fawcette/iga_swiatek/

filedata/fetch?id=97561&d=1654284657&type=thumb

[arturohernandez]

I guess you could have put a second title, Will Coco Gauff's flawed forehand be too much to overcome to win a grand slam?

Is that how you see it? To me, her forehand is a big issue and will hold her back until she fixes it. Clay gives her more time for the long take back but it still seems vulnerable to me.

I know Barty is gone but this would be hers for the taking in this final. I think on clay with all that slice to neutralize Iga's big forehand, it would have been better bet.

Coco is incredibly talented but my feeling is that Iga will be targeting the forehand all day long.

What are your thoughts?

[jimlosaltos]

I guess you could have put a second title, Will Coco Gauff's flawed forehand be too much to overcome to win a grand slam?

Is that how you see it? To me, her forehand is a big issue and will hold her back until she fixes it. Clay gives her more time for the long take back but it still seems vulnerable to me.

I know Barty is gone but this would be hers for the taking in this final. I think on clay with all that slice to neutralize Iga's big forehand, it would have been better bet.

Coco is incredibly talented but my feeling is that Iga will be targeting the forehand all day long.

What are your thoughts?

From watching the semifinal, I was impressed with improvements Coco has made in her game, and with how patient she was. This was not like watching Osaka at the same age try to slam midcourt balls through the net. Coco was patient, building points. And her service motion is not as, how to say this, out of control.

Still, Coco was in a real battle for the first set against a player that would, I'm guess, lose 1 & 1 to Swiatek. So, I'm not expecting a close match and happy if I'm wrong.

[arturohernandez]

The errors on the forehand keep mounting. Macci, Rodriguez or Lansdorp would help immensely.

[arturohernandez]

Arthur Ashe might have had a few thoughts about how to try something different against Swiatek today. The problem is someone will hit harder eventually. Great tournament for Gauff. Cleaning up her forehand and adding variety will help.

You can’t bash your way through everyone.

[jimlosaltos]

Worth recognizing some of Iga's numbers. She only turned 21 this Tuesday and this is her second Roland Garros title, youngest woman to win two majors since Maria Sharapova in 2006.

She's won 35 matches in a row, the women's record for "modern times", eclipsing Venus. I believe the only set she lost at Roland Garros was to Chinese teen Quinen Zheng 7-6(5). Go back further and "Martina Navratilova won 74 straight singles matches in her most dominant year: 1984."

First woman to win six titles since Justine Henin (Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome, Roland Garros}

I can't find numbers for this at the moment, but Iga had broken her opponent's serve on their first attempt in something ridiculous like 22 matches in a row. I think that streak was broken before today, but can't confirm. Today, Iga went up 4-0 to start. Gauff then went up 2-0 in the final set, I believe.

We could praise many aspects of her game, but surely she must be the best returner the WTA has seen in quite a while. She ranks number one in return stats on the WTA site, winning a staggering 62.2% of her return games. That percentage would rank in the top 20 on the WTA in serves HELD. In other words, Iga breaks serve most often than most of the tour wins their own serves.

The last time Iga lost was to Ostapenko in Dubai in mid-February. Since then she has beaten, from first to most recent:

Golubic
Kasatkina
Sabalenka
Sakkari
Kontaveit
Kalinina
Tauson
Kerber
Keys
Halep
Sakkari (again)
Golubic
Brengle
Gauff
Kvitova
Pegula
Osaka
Prisacariu
Buzarnescu
Lys
Raducanu
Samsonova
Sabalenka (again)
Ruse
Azarenka
Andreescu
Jabeur
Tsurenko
Riske
Kovinic
Zheng
Pegula (again)
Kasatkina (again)
Gauff (again)

That's basically every style of player one can meet on the WTA tour, and every top player in action.


Coverage & links:

RG article https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/a...iumph-in-paris

WTA player detail page: https://www.wtatennis.com/players/32...wiatek#matches

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iga_%C5%9Awi%C4%85tek

Final highlights (5:05 min) on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ygm80MT5cok

NYT article: A sort of play by play "French Open: Iga Swiatek Dominates in Final to Win Championship" https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06...smid=url-share

#

[jimlosaltos]

How dominant is Iga on the WTA now? Her ranking point lead is so big it is conceivable that she could not play the entire second half of the year and still end the year as the number one ranked player.

In the year-to-date or "race" points, she has more points than the 2,3 and 4 ranked players -- combined.

Here is the "live' point totals per one tracking source.

filedata/fetch?id=97578&d=1654371031&type=thumb

[arturohernandez]

Worth recognizing some of Iga's numbers. She only turned 21 this Tuesday and this is her second Roland Garros title, youngest woman to win two majors since Maria Sharapova in 2006.

She's won 35 matches in a row, the women's record for "modern times", eclipsing Venus. I believe the only set she lost at Roland Garros was to Chinese teen Quinen Zheng 7-6(5). Go back further and "Martina Navratilova won 74 straight singles matches in her most dominant year: 1984."

First woman to win six titles since Justine Henin (Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome, Roland Garros}

I can't find numbers for this at the moment, but Iga had broken her opponent's serve on their first attempt in something ridiculous like 22 matches in a row. I think that streak was broken before today, but can't confirm. Today, Iga went up 4-0 to start. Gauff then went up 2-0 in the final set, I believe.

We could praise many aspects of her game, but surely she must be the best returner the WTA has seen in quite a while. She ranks number one in return stats on the WTA site, winning a staggering 62.2% of her return games. That percentage would rank in the top 20 on the WTA in serves HELD. In other words, Iga breaks serve most often than most of the tour wins their own serves.

The last time Iga lost was to Ostapenko in Dubai in mid-February. Since then she has beaten, from first to most recent:

Golubic
Kasatkina
Sabalenka
Sakkari
Kontaveit
Kalinina
Tauson
Kerber
Keys
Halep
Sakkari (again)
Golubic
Brengle
Gauff
Kvitova
Pegula
Osaka
Prisacariu
Buzarnescu
Lys
Raducanu
Samsonova
Sabalenka (again)
Ruse
Azarenka
Andreescu
Jabeur
Tsurenko
Riske
Kovinic
Zheng
Pegula (again)
Kasatkina (again)
Gauff (again)

That's basically every style of player one can meet on the WTA tour, and every top player in action.


Coverage & links:

RG article https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/a...iumph-in-paris

WTA player detail page: https://www.wtatennis.com/players/32...wiatek#matches

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iga_%C5%9Awi%C4%85tek

Final highlights (5:05 min) on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ygm80MT5cok

NYT article: A sort of play by play "French Open: Iga Swiatek Dominates in Final to Win Championship" https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06...smid=url-share

#

Sigh. Every style except Barty, the Giant Killer. The question is whether anyone will rise up to challenge her. It will have to be someone with a great slice to slow her down.

The men seem to have finally started to use more slice. Will the women follow?