Little known Polish player
Up and until the end of French Open 2020, Poland never had a Grand Slam winner. The person who came closer to it in the last decade was the top ten lady player Agnieska Radwanska. Iga Swiatek changed it. Her name in Polish is pronounced, Heey-ga Chviontek. To an English speaker, it is as surprising as her appearance. Her father, an Olympian, rowed for Poland.
Iga a surprise, not really! She won the Junior Wimbledon title in 2018. As an unseeded player she beat the number one seed of the draw USA’s Whitney Osuigwe in the opening round. There was no other who could stop her in the 2018 Junior Wimbledon draw. At the 2018 French Open along with Cathy McNally she won the doubles title. Iga’s best ITF junior ranking was 214 in January 2019.
Next Superstar
Last year, a series of good performances placed her into the first 50 of the WTA ranking, making her eligible into a Grand Slam draw. Winning the French Open at 19 years of age, places her on par with Monica Seles and Rafael Nadal in age/performance equation. The French title places Iga in position 17 of the WTA ranking.
Iga’s back court coverage, early sighting of the ball off the opponent’s racquet, ability to play inside the baseline during the opponent’s service game, liberal in going to net are her forte. Her net game confidence is giving the strength to improvise in time tight situations and the use of drop shot using the touch are from her doubles playing ability. Iga’s shot selection and choice of angles matches the best in the game. Considering her age, it is phenomenal. Her record shows her success on clay court to be 88% and 69% on hard.
Iga is hailed as the best tennis prospect for the decade to come. The reason to do so by the sports critics comes from the game she exhibits. She is a super athlete, fast, well balanced and strong. In this front of prospects in WTA tennis, Naomi Osaka, Sofia Kenin and Coco Gauff are to be reckoned to be of the same calibre. A player has to surface and sustain, of the two sustaining is the bigger challenge to a professional player.
Nadal again
Nadal won his 13 French Open title. He did so without losing a set. The two tough opponents who could have taken a set from Nadal are Djokovic in the finals and Diego Swarztman of Argentina in the semifinals.
In fact, Swartzman beat Nadal a week ago in Rome, arriving on court having played a four-hour five-set match against Dominic Theim of Austria in the quarterfinals. Scwarztman was drained. Nadal could not take a chance against a player who had beaten him ten days ago. Nadal prevailed in three sets.
Djokovic also played five sets over four hours to beat Stefanos Tisitsipas of Greece in the semi-finals. Easily the best match of the French Open of 2020. Throughout the event Djokovic was attended by the tournament physio. The final between Nadal and Djokovic was about the worst men’s final of French Open to my memory. It was one sided and the tennis failed to impress even the few who were lucky to be there.
After a five-hour, five-set match on clay court a player will need a week’s rest to regain the muscular energy and another week regain the playing form. A tennis tournament does not provide this time.
40 million; from one event
In a rough estimate, Nadal’s earnings only from the French Open from 2004 to date would exceed 40 million dollars. This is due to ATP and WTA managerial efficiency. With that kind of money available the standard of tennis has shot up. It is at a level now only professional players can achieve. Popularity of a sport is directly connected to the exhibition of proficiency in any country. Many nations strive to promote sport. They must always identify and be aware of the aspects that makes a sport popular.
The frightening factor threatening sport like many other sectors of our life is the global COVID-19 situation. Even to an experienced person in the medical field it is baffling. To the professional players as to where they stand with this is still not clear. With severe restrictions in spectatorship and training possibilities, professionals face an uncertain immediate future.
Travel, calendar and training
In fairness to the reputed players, their performance lacked confidence due to the global health hazard. This gave a chance to many second rung players to appear in the middle rounds of the events worked out. No player is feeling safe to venture into serious training and appear in events as they used to. It is understandable. In fact, although not disclosed some players’ entries were not allowed following subsequent COVID-19 test results in recent events.
From the schedule of the 2020 ATP and WTA events calendar, only a few were worked out successfully. As it stands the events in the WTA calendar for the rest of the year are wiped out. Europe is going ahead with some of the indoor events and year-end ATP final in London. The situation has affected the WTA more because their events and the finals were in China.
—George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka, coached ATP, WTA and ITF top 200 ranked players, Davis-Cup, Federation-Cup coach. ———- geodano2015@gmail.com