Iga Swiatek admits her ‘serve wasn’t working’ in US Open defeat

Iga Swiatek has been beaten in the US Open quarter-finals by Jessica Pegula, with the World No.1 lamenting her high unforced error count.

Swiatek was beaten by the American, 6-2 6-4, as Pegula progresses to her first Grand Slam semi-final after six previous quarter-final defeats.

In this match, Swiatek hit a total of 41 unforced errors and only won 56% of her first service points, being broken on four separate occasions by Pegula.

And the Pole was very honest when reflecting on her performance when speaking to press, “It wasn’t a good performance from me. Jessie took advantage of it, played better, I played worse, she won. I realised something was wrong when I was 4-0 down in the first set, I tried to do the same job as always. I didn’t really understand why my serve wasn’t working. I had a hard time finding the right solution.”

The 23-year-old continued, “It’s never easy to play against Jess. She has a tricky ball because it’s quite low and hits quite flat. I wouldn’t say she’s changed a lot, because it’s impossible to change her style of play, but she was definitely more solid than me and made far fewer mistakes.

“So because of that, she was putting pressure on me. Usually, I’m able to push her back or put pressure on her, but today I made too many mistakes.”

It has been a different lead-up to the US Open this year due to the Paris Olympic Games, and Swiatek was the only singles medallist remaining in the draw.

After exiting the New York major, Swiatek was asked about whether the Olympic build-up impacted her progress at the final Grand Slam tournament of 2024.

“It’s hard for me to compare, because every year I have different challenges,” answered Swiatek. “For example, last year I felt a lot of anxiety and pressure about being world number one and the feeling that I could lose it. This year I didn’t feel it as much. I feel more mature in terms of not really thinking about the rankings and the points.

“At this tournament it’s hard to compare because there are so many factors, apart from the Olympics, that it’s hard to judge. A little bit less time to play on hard courts, maybe it matters. But honestly, I’m not that experienced to know.”

Congratulations on another great run here, @iga_swiatek!

See you soon 👋 pic.twitter.com/w0zUj2SGkc

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2024

As a result of Swiatek’s exit from the tournament, there is guaranteed to be a new US Open champion in the women’s singles draw with Pegula, Karolina Muchova, Aryna Sabalenka and Emma Navarro remaining.

Inside the baseline…

It certainly was not a great match by Iga Swiatek’s standards, with the World No.1 only reaching Grand Slam semi-finals  at Roland Garros in both 2023 and 2024, where she went all the way to the title. Whether her major tournament record is something for concern is yet to be known, with Swiatek definitely the best player on the WTA Tour. A lot also has to be said for Jessica Pegula, who has been the in-form player coming into the US Open this year after winning the Toronto title and reaching the Cincinnati final before jumping over the career hurdle of winning a Grand Slam quarter-final.

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