Swiatek Shares Key to Grass Transition
By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, July 1, 2023
Iga Swiatek’s abdomen is settled. Now she’s specializing in stabilizing her ft for an prolonged Wimbledon run.
Meeting with the media at Wimbledon at the moment, Swiatek mentioned she’s recovered from the virus that compelled to withdraw from her maiden grass-court semifinal at Bad Homburg.
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The four-time Grand Slam champion expects to be “fine” for her No. 1 Court opener vs. Lin Zhu on Monday.
“I’m okay. I had a really bad night,” Swiatek mentioned. “We did with my conditioning coach like measurements in the morning. They didn’t really look good because I barely slept.
“I had a stomachache, however I do not know if there was one thing fallacious or not. Later within the day I felt okay, so I’m fairly positive it’ll be tremendous.”
What is the important thing to three-time Roland Garros champion Swiatek surpassing the Wimbledon fourth spherical for the primary time in her fourth SW19 look?
The top-seeded Swiatek mentioned it begins from the bottom up.
Swiatek mentioned she produce proactive footwork as a result of she feels it is harder to cease and plant on grass popping out of a slide and since the ball bounces decrease on grass than on clay requiring her to bend decrease significantly on her western-grip forehand.
“I think mainly I’m focused on footwork because that’s I think where my strength is on other surfaces,” Swiatek mentioned. “For sure sliding is tricky here, so you have to slow down and stop before the shot in a different way.
“I really feel like in case you have time to regulate to the floor after which use your instinct on matches, I used to be ready to do this a little bit bit in Bad Homburg. I believe it’ll be tremendous. But the factor is, final yr after I did not play any matches earlier than Wimbledon, it was onerous to make use of my instinct as a result of there was strain.”
In addition to precise footwork, Swiatek said grass demands trusting intuition and improvisational skills.
“I felt like I’m taking part in a Grand Slam, and I performed so effectively in Roland Garros that I ought to play effectively right here as effectively,” Swiatek said. “But it is totally different. Your mind type of has to type of really feel the ball is bouncing decrease. You cannot take into consideration issues like that in the course of the match.
“So I think this year, it’s going to be a little bit easier for me to use my intuition a little bit more.”
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