If the dominant theme on day one of the WTA Finals was how to deal with the conditions, the focus on day two was how to deal with Iga Swiatek. It was a puzzle that Daria Kasatkina did not even come close to solving – and the imperious manner of Swiatek’s 6-2, 6-3 victory over the Russian eighth seed will have done little to encourage the rest of the field that they will fare better.
It was like watching a more one-sided version of the famous “battle of the surfaces” exhibition of 2007, when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal faced off on a court that was half clay, half grass. At one end, Swiatek looked for all the world as though she were back on the terre battue of Roland Garros, such time did she have to set up her shots on a surface slow enough to have been branded “weird” by Maria Sakkari. At the other end, Kasatkina gave a passable impression of a woman playing on polished wood, so frenetic were her efforts to keep pace with the Polish world No 1’s relentless baseline bombardment.
“Against Dasha I knew it was going to be pretty hard to balance being aggressive and not making a lot of mistakes, because she can really reset the rallies,” said Swiatek after her fifth win of the year over Kasatkina.
“I’m pretty happy at the beginning I was able to be proactive but, on the other hand, really solid.”
On a court that plays naturally to her strengths, Swiatek was quick to find that devastating blend of boldness and consistency. The sequence with which she wrapped up her opening service game – drilled backhand winner, drop shot, blazing swing volley – was merely the prelude to a devastating display of front-foot tennis.
That Kasatkina managed to stretch the contest to an hour and 22 minutes spoke volumes for her tenacity, but in truth she had little else with which to hurt the top seed. It is not a good match-up for the Russian, whose whippy forehand and kick serve are reminiscent of Swiatek’s while offering nothing like the same potency.
“I’m trying to really play proactively and dominant,” said Swiatek, the French and US Open champion, following her 13th consecutive win over a top-10 player.
“I know how it is to play topspin, because I’m a topspin player as well. This year I’ve started playing more flat, but she’s using topspin a lot, so I feel like I can really figure it out.”
Swiatek will have more deciphering to do in a couple of days’ time when she faces Caroline Garcia, the buccaneering Frenchwoman who upset her on home soil this summer at the Poland Open. Garcia, the only player in the eight-woman field to have beaten Swiatek this season, came through 6-4, 6-3 against fourth seed Coco Gauff, ensuring that all four debutants at this year’s finals enter the second round of group matches without a win.
In an absorbing contest between two of the finest athletes in the women’s game, Garcia’s relentless aggression proved decisive. Her high-risk, high-reward style, based around a heavy, accurate serve and a penchant for drilling her returns from well inside the baseline, are a natural fit for the surface. Gauff was left ruing her failure to match her opponent’s boldness.
“I’m not really one to focus on the speed of the court, you just have to adjust as you go,” said the fourth-seeded American.
“But I think the main way to play is definitely aggressive. Usually, your typical neutral ball on this court won’t be neutral, it’ll be more offensive for the other player, so I think I’m just trying to understand the shots I need to play and when I need to play them.”
For Garcia, back at the WTA Finals for the first time in five years after a renascent summer that has brought titles on three different surfaces, the question now is whether she can replicate the devastating performance she produced against Swiatek in Warsaw.
“It’s definitely a good experience to take from the Poland Open, it gave me confidence,” said the 29-year-old. “To be aggressive is probably the best way to try to beat her. When she has time to do her things, it’s very complicated.
“She changes direction so well, she moves very well on court with her sliding, she looks like she’s covering two courts when you cover only one.”
It is an assessment that Kasatkina, handed a trial by fire, will affirm. Yet the Russian is hoping for better in her next match, which will come on Thursday against Gauff.
“It’s my first experience of playing in the finals,” said Kasatkina. “To face the No 1 player in the world in the first match is not easy.
“But I’ve still got a chance – this is a very nice thing about this event… I’ve got a second life, like in the video games.”
The problem for Kasatkina, and everyone else in Fort Worth with title pretensions, is that Swiatek is already playing tennis straight out of a video game.