"It looks awkward, it's just not fluid at all": Martina Navratilova slates new Iga Swiatek serve after Australian Open exit

Iga Swiatek was dumped out of the 2024 Australian Open by Linda Noskova with the Czech teenager coming from a set down to beat the World No.1 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round. With the win, she broke an unbeaten run of 18 matches and amid upsets also for Elena Rybakina, Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula also handed the biggest loss of the tournament so far seed wise.

But this could surround a change of service motion for Swiatek which has been slated by 18-time major winner, Martina Navratilova who said she was not happy with it and urged her to work on it. The Pole is known for tweaking aspects of her game and for being a perfectionist on the way she handles herself on the court and has seemingly reverted to a former motion in the off season which has not paid dividends in her loss to the 19-year-old Czech ace and has seen the top half of the draw blown wide open in Melbourne.

"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 told 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.