Iga Swiatek has emphatically booked her place in the Qatar Open third round.
The Polish star, a winner of six Grand Slam titles, comfortably defeated Indonesia’s Janice Tjen 6-3, 6-0.
In the next round, Swiatek will face Daria Kasatkina, who defeated Elise Mertens 6-4, 6-0 earlier on Tuesday.
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Ahead of her participation in Doha, Swiatek revealed that she had been working on her serve, forehand and footwork following her loss in the Australian Open quarter-finals.
Speaking before her match against Tjen, the 24-year-old detailed the changes she has noticed in her serve since the opening major of the year.
Iga Swiatek discusses how her serve has changed in training
Speaking to Sky Sports on Tuesday, Swiatek said: “I don’t think there is going to be much changes you are going to see in the motion [of her serve], but there is some stuff that I wanted to be more natural and have better quality doing it.
“There’s not something that is going to be visible for any experts, but I want to have some confidence in the serve and to know that I am going to play exactly where I want to.
“On the practice court it’s been getting better and better every day. I am happy with how I am serving here, already I think it’s better than in Melbourne. But I need to transfer it to the match court.”
Swiatek’s serving regime appears to be working. She served superbly against Tjen on Monday, winning 71 per cent of her first-serve points, and – remarkably – 83 per cent of her second-serve points.
Comparatively, Tjen won 44 and 38 per cent of her first and second-serve attempts, respectively.
Swiatek also served four aces and converted five of her nine break-point opportunities.
Iga Swiatek says what she did after losing in Melbourne
Iga Swiatek’s hopes of winning the career Grand Slam were ended in the Australian Open quarter-finals by Elena Rybakina, who went on to win the title.
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Swiatek has since revealed what she did in the aftermath of that defeat.
In the same Sky Sports interview, Swiatek said: “I had five days off after Melbourne, I really enjoyed that. I didn’t come back home [Poland] because it’s super cold there, like -18 degrees.
“I stayed in Melbourne and had a proper vacation and I really liked that.”
