Iga Swiatek, one of the generational tennis pros, has surprised the world as she made her way up the rankings. Ever since she turned pro, the Pole has been phenomenal, achieving a lot at a young age. However, there are times when the 22-year-old has struggled on Tour.
In a recent interview with Fakt, Swiatek’s coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, revealed his opinions on the burning rivalry between Swiatek and Latvian pro Jelena Ostapenko. The two have been neck-to-neck ever since they turned pro.
While Ostapenko won the French Open in 2017 and reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 2018, Swiatek has also done the same and better.
However, Swiatek faces a major issue when she faces the Latvian. Despite the statistics, the Pole has always failed to bring out her best game against Ostapenko. Swiatek’s coach shared his opinion on this potential issue.
Ostapenko has the tools to make life miserable. It plays in an unpredictable way. It is difficult to read because it is placed in an unusual way. Sometimes it may seem that she will play diagonally, but she plays in a line. He also has a lot of ball speed. Explained Tomasz Wiktorowski in the interview
Till now, Swiatek has not had any answers to the questions posed by Penko. Despite having four Grand Slams to her name, Swiatek always falls short of the Latvian, which usually cuts her run short.
Iga Swiatek’s coach drops some hard truths about Jelena Ostapenko
In a recent interview via Fakt, Iga Swiatek’s coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, had some opinions to share about Jelena Ostapenko. The Latvian has been a headache for the Pole, who has never won against her. Their H2H stands at 0:4.
Despite the good streak against World No. 1, Ostapenko has not had much success when it comes to title wins. Swiatek’s coach believes that it is due to her risky gameplay. Nonetheless, the Latvian has a Grand Slam to her name and can well be in line for another one.
She risks a lot, which is why her results throughout the season are not great. On the other hand, he has had some great successes. She is a Grand Slam champion and no one can take that away from her. But it's still just a balance sheet, so when the next match against Iga takes place, anything can happen. Concluded Tomasz Wiktorowski in the interview.
This year, however, the Latvian has already won a title early on in the year. She won the Linz Open but failed to make an impact in the other tournaments. On the other hand, Swiatek has had a couple of deep runs and two titles so far.
She hasn’t faced Ostapenka yet and continues to evade her at the upcoming Mutua Madrid Open as well. While Swiatek’s coach believes anything can happen in their next H2H, the records speak otherwise, giving the Latvian an edge.
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