Iga Swiatek has made an admission about the struggles she was having against Alexandra Eala.
Swiatek was beaten by Eala 7-6(9), 6-2 to bring an end to her Wimbledon title defence.
This was a breakthrough result for Eala, who had never even been past the second round of a Grand Slam before Wimbledon this year.
Swiatek managed to break the Eala serve three times, but she has now admitted that she is finding something difficult to accept following her Wimbledon exit.
Iga Swiatek admits she finds it hard to accept her return performance vs Alex Eala
During the third round match between Swiatek and Eala, former British number one Anne Keothavong reported live on the BBC coverage that the Filipina’s average second serve speed is 74mph.
This is in comparison to the average second serve speed of the WTA Tour of 86mph, and the average second serve speed of players inside the top 10 of 92mph.
Swiatek was asked about mental challenges of losing the first set tie-break in her post-match press conference, to which she spoke about Eala’s serve and the challenges she had returning the slower shot.
“I think it was tougher mentally for me to accept these missed returns from the slow serves,” said Swiatek. “I got to say it’s much tougher to return a serve like that than a normal serve.
“I know it was slow. I know exactly how it’s going to come to me. It’s such a different rhythm than what I usually have a chance to return.
“The first serve, I mean, it was a good fight and I know that it’s hard, such a long set. I know that one ball here or there could change a lot.
“But I wanted to be present in the second set. I made some unforced errors at the beginning. Then, yeah, I felt like she was serving slower and slower, and it became tougher and tougher for me to return these serves. That, for me, was hard to accept, yeah.”
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Swiatek was asked a follow-up question about the uncharacteristic errors she was making against Eala, to which she explained in more detail why she struggled on return.
“I wouldn’t say I wouldn’t make them normally,” added Swiatek. “I remember clearly the last two matches against her. Same mistakes happened. I guess it’s something to work on. Even though maybe the top players play super fast and serve fast, you also need to be ready for this kind of rhythm.
“Yeah, I don’t know. Like, she served slow. You need to step in. The court becomes short suddenly. If I want to put my topspin, I feel like I need to really play short.
“But then many balls also just stayed, like, after the bounce. I had them there and didn’t really adjust to them well. I would really need to step in halfway to the court to play this return, like, more natural.
“I don’t know. Even though it’s super slow and people might think it’s easy to return that, it’s quite the opposite. I feel like, yeah, for sure something to work on.”
Iga Swiatek explains why her Wimbledon defeat feels different to Roland Garros
This is the second successive Grand Slam tournament where Swiatek has lost the quarter-final stage, having been beaten by Marta Kostyuk in the fourth round of Roland Garros.
However, Swiatek believes that there is a difference between her two most recent Grand Slam defeats.
“No, I don’t think it’s the same as in Paris,” stated Swiatek. “In Paris for sure it was completely, you know, about me not handling the pressure well. I was firing shots.
“Today I wanted to be more calm and play some balls in. I was miss-hitting half of these returns. I lost many points I feel like. Maybe if I watch, I’m going to see something else.
“For me, today was more about tennis. I’m also happy how I came back in the tiebreaker, and also after being a break down in the first set ’cause I feel like in Paris I would just lose it straight.
“I was there to fight. It wasn’t enough. For sure I could play a little bit better, but she also played great and she used her chances and she went for it.
“In the tiebreak, I remember when it was tight, I remember I slowed down a bit, but she was brave enough to play a bit faster. You need to be brave in Wimbledon to win these points.
“But I got to say it was hard for me to, like, balance the speed that I have that’s made me lose some matches this year because I was playing too fast with being solid. I didn’t find that good balance today and I lost. She played better in important moments.”
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Swiatek is now confirmed to be losing 1870 ranking points after winning the Wimbledon title last year, and will drop down to at least world number six in the WTA rankings.
The Pole will now turn her attention to the US Open hard court swing, with potential upcoming tournaments for Swiatek in Toronto and Cincinnati.
