Iga Swiatek has kicked off her title defence at the Italian Open with a comprehensive straight sets win over Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
The world No.1 spent just over an hour on court to record a 6-3, 6-0, win over Ruse in what was her first match since the Stuttgart Open. Swiatek was forced to pull out of last week’s tournament in Madrid due to a shoulder problem. Fortunately for the Pole she showed no signs of any physical issue during her opening win in Rome where she won 62% of her service points and broke Ruse seven times in total.
“I’m pretty proud I could get into the rhythm today, just take some lessons during the match and improve my game, game by game,” the former French Open champion said afterwards.
Swiatek is hoping to be able to continue her blistering start to the year where she has already claimed a quartet of titles. Something which is yet to be achieved by anybody else on the WTA Tour. She is currently on a career-best 24-match winning streak and is the third youngest player since 2000 to win 20 or more matches in a row after the Williams sisters.
Guiding Swiatek on the Tour is Tomasz Witkorowski who began working with her during the off-season. Witkorowski previously coached Agnieszka Radwanska during most of her career.
“I feel like the most important stuff that my coach is giving me is the experience and how to adjust properly to different kinds of surfaces,” Swiatek replied when asked what areas of her game she is working on. “We’re (my team) are kind of changing my technique to have the best feeling on hard court or on clay court. We’re mainly focusing on that.”
“But for sure there are some things that we want to improve in the whole process. Doesn’t matter what surface it would be.” She added.
One specific area of her game Swiatek has been working on is her serve. According to WTA statistics, she currently has the best serve stats on the women’s Tour with a service game winning rate of 76.7%. The latest figures are based on matches that took place prior to Rome this week.
Whilst she is visibly heading in the right direction, the 20-year-old believes she can improve even further in the coming years.
“I feel like there’s many things to improve. Not only forehand but everything Honestly,” she states.
“I know that he (Witkorowski) has a plan for me going forward. Finishing points at the net would be nice, too, to learn in future years. We are working a lot with my technique.”
Swiatek is bidding to win the Italian Open for a second year in a row. In the next round she faces a potentially testing encounter against two-time major winner Victoria Azarenka who was the Rome runner-up back in 2013. Their head-to-head is currently tied at 1-1 with Swiatek winning their most recent meeting at the Australian Open in three sets.
“Tactically we need to prepare because she’s such an experienced player that you have to be ready for facing a lot of variety in her game,” she said of their upcoming showdown.
The upcoming encounter will be the first time the two players have faced each other on clay.
