"She needs to go back to the drawing board": Mats Wilander gives honest reaction to Iga Swiatek's shock Australian Open upset

WTA
Monday, 22 January 2024 at 11:00
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Former world number Mats Wilander believes that Poland’s Iga Swiatek needs a new game plan to bounce back after having a disappointing outing at the Australian Open.
The women’s world number one was knocked out in the third round of the first Grand Slam of the year after losing to the Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova with a score of 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. It was the second consecutive major where Swiatek had a difficult outing as she lost in the fourth round of the US Open in 2023 to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko with a score of 3-6, 6-3, 6-1,
Wilander, who won seven Grand Slam titles in his illustrious career, was recently quoted in a report where he suggested that the 22-year-old needs to 'go back to the drawing board' if she wants to recover from the recent setback.
“[Linda] Noskova hits the ball really hard and it has become common knowledge that this is how you have to play against Iga Swiatek on a hard court,” Wilander said.
“A lot of shots go to Swiatek’s forehand and it’s supposed to be one of the best forehands in the women’s game. For Iga, I think what she should do and she’s a big fan of Rafael Nadal, is she has a very extreme grip on her forehand and because of that she has more topspin than any other woman, and maybe she has to go to that a little bit more.
“It is very difficult with that grip to try and out-hit these other women as they are such clean ball strikers these days. “It seems like she played the match today how she feels she has to play all these matches to beat Rybakina, to beat Sabalenka, to beat these big hitters.
“And maybe she needs to go back to the drawing board and go okay, this isn’t working, maybe I need to loop the ball a little bit…”

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