Iga Swiatek finished her 2024 US Open campaign on a sour note, and former ATP player John McEnroe was surprised by the lack of adjustments in her game.
Swiatek is known as an attacking baseliner who prefers to finish off points on her own terms. As someone who had an aggressive playstyle himself, McEnroe can understand that approach to rallies.
What he doesn’t understand, however, is why she doesn’t adjust when things don’t go according to the plan. On most days, Swiatek is good enough to beat any player she faces in the draw, as her playstyle becomes overwhelming for her opponents.
At other times, however, it doesn’t work either, and she sends the ball wide too often. Against lower-ranked opposition, it doesn’t end up being a huge issue, but when she faces better players, it can be troubling.
She wasn’t playing a very good match against Jessica Pegula, and while the American wasn’t brilliant either, she wasn’t hitting the ball wide as much as Swiatek was. The Polish player finished with an abysmal 41 unforced errors.
She had 12 winners, the same amount as Pegula, but the American only had 22 unforced errors. Having 19 more unforced errors was simply too much because each unforced error is a point.
Throwing away that many points cost her the match, and former player McEnroe was stunned that she didn’t make any adjustments. In an analysis on Eurosport, the American spoke about what he thinks might be the issue.
"One issue for me is she doesn’t want to play defence at all. At times, she should pull back when the offence isn’t going as well as it can do on clay. She keeps trying to hit out, which is somewhat surprising for someone who prefers a slower surface."
Known as one of the best movers on the WTA Tour, Swiatek certainly has the skill set to lay back a bit and see what happens. She's good enough to get the ball back against anybody so that it could be a good tactic.
However, her instinct is to attack, which is understandable, but sometimes she might need to pivot to something else.
"I was a little surprised that she is either unwilling or unable to make adjustments on the faster surfaces. I don’t know if she had a dip in confidence, but if you saw someone like Iga digging in and defending as well as she attacks, that would be hard opponents to overcome."
Her net game is also something that was brought up before by analysts. As a player who creates an advantage so often in the rally, Swiatek almost never ventures forward. Karolina Muchova easily finishes off points once she hits a deep forehand, but Swiatek almost never charges the net.
"I’m a little surprised she has not made that adjustment, but she is young. Hopefully she can make that adjustment and improve a little at the net."
At best, the Pole moves into the court but never goes all the way, so there is plenty to improve upon and, as McEnroe pointed out, plenty of time to do so.
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