Australian Open 2022: How Iga Swiatek defeated Kaia Kanepi
Iga Swiatek found herself a set down against Kaia Kanepi in the Australian Open quarterfinals. Here's how Swiatek found a way to come through and why it's significant for the Pole.
Short intro here!
Hope you’re all enjoying the tennis.
I’ve watched a lot of matches today but I’ve opted to go for the one I found most interesting out of all the quarterfinals played - Iga Swiatek vs Kaia Kanepi!
Enjoy!
Not Eager for Iga?
2021 was an incredible year for Iga Swiatek.
She was the only player to reach the fourth round or better at every Slam, she won her first Masters title in Rome and she posted a match win percentage of 71%, the ninth-best on tour.
Amazing numbers but as Polish-native Damian Kust has attested to above, Swiatek goes under-appreciated by many. Having won the French Open in 2020, the bar was always set ludicrously high - anything less than Grand Slam success is often seen as a failure for the 20-year-old across the world, even more so in her home country.
Fortunately, Swiatek and her team have spun ‘the failures’ of 2021 into opportunities, a chance to take one step forward rather than being forced to take a step back.
“Right now I have more belief even when I don’t start the match well… I’m proud of myself that I am able to find solutions and actually think more on court on what to change cause before it wasn’t that clear for me. I feel like it’s part of the work we’ve been doing with Daria to control emotions and actually focus on finding solutions.”
Swiatek and co. recognised she had been most vulnerable last year with her back against the wall - in the 14 matches where Swiatek had lost the first set in 2021, she lost the match on 11 occasions.
This year, she’s taken that step forward immediately. She dropped the first set against both Sorana Cirstea and Kaia Kanepi in her last two Australian Open rounds but she dug in to win on both occasions.
Here’s a look at Swiatek’s improvements in analysis of her win over Kanepi.
Iga Swiatek defeats Kaia Kanepi 4-6 7-6 (2) 6-3
Plan A: Rush Kaia’s Forehand
Kaia Kanepi has a huge forehand but, as with any groundstroke with heavy spin on it, it’s possible to rush the shot. For the first set and a half, Swiatek looked to rush the forehand early in the rally to draw a weak response to get up in the point.
However, Kanepi’s plan was exactly the same meaning it boiled down to who could get the first-strike in.
More often than not, that ended one way.
With Swiatek’s second-serve leaking errors1, Kanepi’s return finding depth and Swiatek’s return being dampened by Kanepi’s wide-serves, Swiatek found herself being rushed over and over again.
In the first set:
Two out of every three of the points were in the 0-4 shot rally range with Kanepi winning a strong 60% of them (56% without double faults).
Kanepi played her forehand on 61% of her groundstrokes, an indication of Swiatek’s target but also Kanepi’s ability to conduct proceedings.
With the serve and return advantage firmly in the corner of Kanepi, Swiatek looked rattled2.
Plan B: Survive The Third Shot
It wasn’t a foolproof plan of attack but Swiatek slowly started working out how to win points consistently.
By returning to the backhand, Swiatek looked to neutralise Kanepi’s plus one shot. If she could survive that, she could continue to absorb with her solid backhand and look for the right forehand to attack with.
Swiatek figured out how to survive the first few shots as the match progressed.
1st set % of points in 0-4 shot range = 67%
2nd set % of points in 0-4 shot range = 59%
3rd set % of points in 0-4 shot range = 56%
With Swiatek winning a whopping 63% of the points lasting five shots or more using a ton of variation on her forehand, it was incredibly adept of her to recognise point construction was key to winning this match.
Rather than trying to take the first-strike away from Kanepi by getting there first, Swiatek learned to survive it, trusting in the weight of her shots to tip the scales as the rally extended.
The Thinking Woman’s Iga
There were many more subtle developments to the match than this - there was no immediate switch-up from Plan A to B.
It looked to me as though Iga went in with a concrete plan and when that failed (because Kanepi was playing at a superb level), she was forced to problem solve on her own. We could see that in the dog-fight the match became, in the unfiltered emotion at the end of this match (and the one against Cirstea).
“Basically I’m proud of myself that I am able to find solutions and actually think more on court on what to change cause before it wasn’t that clear for me.”
It may be a work in progress but this new version of Iga Swiatek is capable of taking the dirt-track through matches; from three wins in 14 matches after dropping the first set in 2021, Swiatek is already two out of three in 2022, almost equalling those match wins from last year.
Though she is already an outstanding player, Swiatek is doing everything she can to improve. Whilst others decry her failings, the 20-year-old is learning from them.
If you don’t appreciate her, I will! Good luck in the semifinal Iga!
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I’ve made parallels between Swiatek and Nadal before. Very coincidentally, Nadal also broke his record for most double faults in one match this week against Shapovalov (11).
To say the least… I’m sure her fans were more rattled.