First, one summary. a year ago I will heal you He won the Roland Garros tournament, serving from the first serve at an average speed of 162 km per hour. In this year’s edition, the average is 179 kilometers per hour! No leading athlete in the world has achieved such progress. In fact, none of them come close to these numbers.
Continued article below the video
Below is a terrible comparison of Iga’s service from last season and this season. You only have to look at the racket position to see how much the Polish tennis player’s style has changed. Now, in the early stages of the serve, he raises his right hand much higher.
As you can see, the movement has been shortened significantly, but the effect has gained more power. – It’s a very difficult change. I tried to do it myself as a player, but shortening the serve didn’t work for me – Joanna Sakovich-Kostaica told us when we sent her the aforementioned freeze frames.
Recording from behind the fence and comments: “Strangeness”
– The idea of these changes was already mooted during the 2023 season by coach Tomasz Viktorovski, but great credit should also be given to Maciek Ryszczuk, who was responsible for Iga’s physical preparation. Thanks to this, the service has the right rhythm – we hear from someone close to the Świątek team. They started training at the end of last season. In December, a video filmed from behind the fence, showing ancient serving techniques, circulated on tennis forums.
Not everyone liked it. “Weirdness”, “She’s about to tear off her arm”, “It’s not a good idea”, “Oh, we will soon have a new leader in the rating” – such sounds can be read under the video. A defeat in the third round of the Australian Open to Linda Noskova gave the critics additional weapons. Among those upset was the tennis legend, Martina Navratilova.
I’m not happy with Iga’s new site. It seems strange. I don’t think she has any benefit from it, and it seems very uncomfortable – Martina Navratilova
“I don’t like it, and I don’t think it would be repeatable under pressure, because there’s no flow. There’s a weird pause. When you don’t have flow, you get nervous, you lose rhythm. The old technology should be returned, and perhaps cosmetically changed. Because it won’t work.” – the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion said in January in front of the Tennis Channel cameras. That statement didn’t age well, did it?
Without those cheap points, Iga would never have beaten Sabalenka in Madrid
Today, ahead of Iga’s fourth final at Roland Garros, renowned tennis analysts underscore the importance of Iga Švetic’s service revolution. Gil Gross, of the Tennis Channel and the US Open, compares the speeds and writes: “Without those cheap points, Iga would never have beaten Sabalenka in MadridShe may lose to Osaka in the second round (Roland Garros – Editor’s Note) and will find it more difficult against Gauff in the semi-finals. This is big.”
Vansh Virmani, an analyst at TennisONEApp, was also very impressed with the progress made by Świątek: “This change in the entire movement (…) is a testament to how much Iga has developed and how dominant it is.”
“The mission is definitely not complete,” said Iga Świątek.
Last January, the player herself spoke about her transformation as follows: “We have been working on my serve technique, and I hope that this movement will become smoother. The job is certainly not finished yet, but we are moving in a very good direction. Overall, I’ve been working on different moves this winter that will allow me to move forward more, be more aggressive, and finish more at the net.”
After half a year, the impact of the changes has become enormous. The table below shows Iga Świątek’s serve speeds in the last five editions of Roland Garros.
| year | Average speed of first service | Average speed of second service | Fastest service |
| 2020 | 157 km/h | 127 km/h | 175 km/h |
| 2021 | 161 km/h | 126 km/h | 179 km/h |
| 2022 | 159 km/h | 131 km/h | 178 km/h |
| 2023 | 162 km/h | 130 km/h | 187 km/h |
| 2024 | 179 km/h | 137 km/h | 194 km/h |
The jump achieved in the past 12 months is the largest ever. Not only has the average of the first and second passes increased, but also the maximum value. In this year’s tournament, Iga was able to throw the ball at a speed of 194 kilometers per hour. All this allows Świątek to lead this season in the rating of games won with his serve.
Record speeds in women’s tennis are still a long way off. The fastest serve in history belongs to Georgina Garcia Pérez, who reached a speed of 220 kilometers per hour during the 2018 Hungarian Open. Second on the list is Iga Świątek’s top rival, Aryna Sabalenka. At the WTA Elite Cup – also in 2018 – she served at a speed of 214 km per hour.
Roland Garros 2024: Iga Svetek – Yasmine Paolini. When is the final?
But we will not see Sabalenka in the Roland Garros final, but we will definitely see Poland. There he will meet Italian Yasmine Paolini. Players have faced each other twice so far and your healing has been better each time. In 2018 in Prague, she won 6:2, 6:1. She lost only three matches to her opponent in the first round of the US Open 2022. Iga won 6:3, 6:0.
The third match, the grand final of Roland Garros 2024, is on Saturday at 3 pm. The Pole has already won the Paris Championship three times.
source:Onet Sports Review
Date of creation: 7 June 2024 at 07:50
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Przegląd Sportowy Onet magazine
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