Anyone struggling to put their finger on what makes Iga Swiatek so dominant could do a lot worse than consult the beginner’s guide outlined by Madison Keys earlier this month at the Madrid Open.
“She’s very difficult because the ball comes back over the net so quickly,” said the 29-year-old American after a 6-1, 6-3 semi-final defeat to Swiatek in the Spanish capital.
“Maybe not with as much power as some of the other players have, but she does such a great job at taking the ball early, and it comes back so quickly, that you start feeling rushed.
“She obviously moves very well, so I feel like she does a really great job at making you feel like you have to start hitting these incredible shots from all over the court. She puts you in a bad position to where you start going for things that you shouldn’t.”
Knowing what to expect and doing something about it are, however, two very different things. On Tuesday, Keys renewed acquaintances with Swiatek in Rome only to suffer a near-identical experience. The Polish world No 1 cantered through the first set, quelled sporadic resistance in the second, and eventually prevailed by the same 6-1, 6-3 scoreline she posted in Madrid. Keys lasted six minutes longer this time around and engineered 10 break points, which was seven more than she managed at the Caja Mágica. Yet the story was otherwise unchanged. Evidently forewarned is not always forearmed.
And the thing is, Keys is a player of genuine pedigree. A former US Open finalist with a career-high ranking of No 7, the Floridian has reached the semi-finals or better at three of the four majors, including Roland Garros. Of the dozen finals she has reached in her career, three have come on clay, including one in Rome, where she was beaten in the 2016 final by Serena Williams. It is no secret that she prefers hard courts, but Keys knows how to win tennis matches on any surface. And as the analysis she offered in Madrid suggests, she understands Swiatek’s game. Indeed, Keys was one of only nine players to defeat the Pole in her annus mirabilis of 2022. So how has Swiatek been able to brush her aside twice in a fortnight for the average loss of just two games a set?
The answer is not necessarily obvious. She doesn’t have a powerhouse serve like Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina. Her vicious topspin forehand, a formidable weapon, can also become a liability when she is denied time. And while even the uninitiated observer can see that her footwork, athleticism and defensive skills are off the charts, those virtues alone are surely not sufficient to explain why, at the age of 22, she has already racked up 102 weeks at the top of the rankings.
“I feel like when you look at her it doesn’t look like she’s doing anything massively, spectacularly well,” said Johanna Konta, the former world No 4 turned Sky Sports pundit, during Swiatek’s latest win over Keys. “But it’s the fact that she’s doing nothing wrong that is impressive. She just knows exactly how to play her opponent.
“That’s what great players do incredibly well: their base level is so high that it really asks their opponents to play better more consistently than they normally would. But it’s not flashy, it’s just solid.”
Swiatek’s brand of solid is nonetheless a sight to behold when she is in full flight. She went through her full repertoire against Keys, taking the ball on the rise, creating angles from central positions, pouncing on the slightest invitation to attack. The American spent most of the contest off balance, scrambling from corner to corner, unable to bring her own weight of shot to bear. On the rare occasions Keys was permitted time on the ball, strokes that would have been winners against almost any other player came back with deflating regularity, the wing-heeled Swiatek sliding to conjure brilliant defensive plays even at the very end of her range. Rarely can the court have felt bigger to Keys.
So “solid” is a relative term where Swiatek is concerned. Solid was the improvised one-handed backhand drop shot that gave her a set point after just 26 minutes; the deep lob she produced when Keys approached behind what looked for all the world like a point-ending backhand approach; the smash that Keys then missed to concede the set, the result of cumulative, relentless pressure that made the American feel as though she had to do something extra to get the ball past her opponent.
It hardly helped that Keys ran into the Pole on a day when she could do no wrong on serve. Swiatek made a remarkable 85% of her first serves in the opening set, but it was in the second that her delivery really came into its own. In the fifth game, she faced four break points; on each occasion, Keys failed to put a return in court. It wasn’t raw pace or dead-eyed precision that saved Swiatek, yet neither was Keys’s failure to convert her opportunities purely down to profligacy. For all the discussion around the world No 1’s service, it is a vastly underrated weapon. This season, no player with six or more matches under their belt has won more service games, saved more break points, or enjoyed greater success behind their second serve.
“Honestly, I keep laughing about my serve, but I know it’s pretty good,” said Swiatek. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.
“Even if I don’t serve well, I know I can win points by just playing behind the baseline. I always have a plan B. I’ve had more and more matches where my serve was working. Having that combined, it just gives you a pretty good confidence.”
That confidence was plain against Keys. Dispensing with variety, Swiatek relentlessly peppered the American’s backhand, to the point where her coach, Bjorn Fratangelo, implored her to take remedial action, adjusting her return grip if necessary.
“Even if you just hold it there. Do It,” Fratangelo told her early in the second set. “Just keep it there and go. You know she’s going there.”
Four first serves followed, each to the backhand; Swiatek won the game to love. It would be easy to point the finger at Keys, but that would be to miss the point. It takes courage to keep going to the same spot, however often it might be working. The serve is the one shot over which a player has complete control; to telegraph your intentions not only nullifies that advantage, but also risks playing a perceived weakness into form. Swiatek’s serving strategy demonstrated her conviction that while Keys might know what was coming, there would be little she could do about it.
That assurance, born of serial success, is another major weapon in Swiatek’s armoury. Her teak-tough mentality has served her at every turn in Rome. She was a point away from falling 5-1 behind in the second set of her opener against Yulia Putintseva. She needed eight set points to go ahead against Angelique Kerber, then immediately fell a break down in the second. And after racing through the opening set against Keys, she faced break points in three of the five service games that followed. On each occasion, Swiatek won in straight sets.
Awaiting the Pole in the semi-finals is Coco Gauff, another big-serving American who knows what to expect. The pair have met 10 times, with Gauff’s lone success coming last year in Cincinnati.
“I think most players know how to beat each other, but it’s all about are you going to be able to do it in that moment,” said Gauff, the world No 3, in the aftermath of that victory.
They have played twice since, with Swiatek winning in straight sets both times, first in Beijing and then at the WTA Finals. It is further proof that, against the world’s best player, understanding the challenge is very different to surmounting it.