2024-10-17 12:15:00
– I had the opportunity to meet her in 2018, when she won her junior Wimbledon, when my then player Angelique Kerber won the senior title. From the evening I met Iga, I watched her development, but I also had the pleasure of sharing the court with her during the training sessions of the players I worked with, and often in fierce matches – says Wim Fissette, Iga Świątek‘s new coach.
On Thursday, the world’s best tennis player announced that the 44-year-old Belgian was her new coach. What can Świątek achieve under his leadership? She won her first Grand Slam tournament with Piotr Sierzputowski (Roland Garros 2020) and four more with Tomasz Wiktorowski (Roland Garros 2022, US Open 2022, Roland Garros 2023 and Roland Garros 2024)? What changes in Iga tennis will we see soon?
Fissette knows it. There is evidence
Wojciech Fibak, asked by Sport.pl what new things Fisette can introduce to tennis Świątek, immediately answers: “Not much new.” Why so? The former tennis player and coach is simply aware of Iga’s tennis class. Some time ago, Piotr Woźniacki, father and coach of Karolina, the former number one in the world ranking, spoke interestingly on Sport.pl. “If he starts trying to do something, it will be like a Ferrari with the engine removed. You can’t tamper with a winning car,” argued the experienced trainer.
Fissette will definitely want to change something – that’s why he was hired. Fibak hopes that, especially when it comes to Iga’s play on grass, the Belgian’s goal will be to achieve joint success with Iga at Wimbledon, where they met. – His biggest challenge will definitely be Wimbledon, how to prepare Iga tactically and technically for a grass surface so that she can achieve as much success on this surface as on other surfaces – says Fibak.
Sabine Lisicki achieved her life’s success at Wimbledon under Fissette’s leadership. The German of Polish descent reached the final in 2013, defeating Agnieszka Radwańska 6-4, 2-6, 7-9 in the semi-final, and earlier, in the fourth round, eliminating Serena Williams. Johanna Konta also achieved great success at Wimbledon with Fissett in her box, reaching the semi-finals there in 2017. And Fissette’s greatest Wimbledon achievement is, of course, the triumph of Kerber in 2018.
May Świątek become even tougher
Convincing Iga that she will be able to win a Grand Slam tournament on grass and reminding her of her junior triumph from years ago will indeed be a big challenge for the Belgian. But fans hope that Fissette will also find the key to Iga’s better play in Grand Slam tournaments played on hard courts.
Świątek was once in the semi-finals of the Australian Open and even won the US Open. But her successes in Melbourne and New York absolutely do not compare with her Parisian dominance. In general, Iga is a tennis player who does very well on hard courts and wins many tournaments (already 12 WTA ranks)
Fissette’s players – different after all – generally did great in all Grand Slam arenas, but especially in those where Iga would like to achieve more. With him, Kim Clijsters won the US Open twice and the Australian Open once, and Naomi Osaka won each of these tournaments.
It is difficult to expect that Fissette will suddenly order Iga to stop the offensive and advise her to wait more for her opponents’ mistakes, and finally, that she will force the Pole to play like this. He’s actually not allowed to do that! However, it would probably be very valuable if he convinced Iga that not always and not against every opponent on fast hard courts is it worth responding with even greater force. That sometimes it’s worth having a plan B, which involves surviving more difficult moments, changing the rhythm of the game, and proposing solutions other than the basic ones, which are 90% effective. Idze performs great in matches.
Slides, shortcuts, trips to the net? We’ll see if we see it
Going into details, it would probably be good to see more slides, shortcuts or trips to the net in Iga’s game, but here again it is worth recalling Woźniacki’s words from our conversation from a few months ago.
“[Iga] It would be a bad thing if she got discouraged by some failure, and it would be even worse if she started listening to the prompters, all those advisors who tell her that she should play shortcuts, not shortcuts. These are funny things. It’s funny, because when a man builds a house, he has to base it on foundations and not talk about what windows he wants or what color the roof is. Without foundations, any turmoil will come and there will be no house. Iga has the foundations, and all the other things that someone tries to suggest cannot be done with all players and not always. For me this is unnecessary talk. I know that there must be one conductor even for the most talented orchestra, because if several conductors start conducting, each orchestra will start to falsify […] Iga could play shortcuts, but how can she hit and win a point, if she has a better weapon, why should she take this shortcut? […] Shortcuts and lobs were played by Isia [Agnieszka Radwańska]but Isia was Isia and she played tennis like that because she didn’t have the power that Iga has. Iga has something different and has to play with what he has. If he starts trying to figure it out, it will be like a Ferrari with the engine removed,” Woźniacki told us then. “You can’t tamper with anything when it comes to a winning car. Here we have a good car and a good driver, and if we start manipulating and forcing Iga and Wiktorowski to improve, it may turn out that they keep going, going, going until they run out of fuel right before the finish line. I would continue in the direction that works. And if someone is missing in the team, I would see it as an expert in software or statistics,” he added.
Today, Woźniacki does not want to enter into a conversation about the new coach Świątek or what Fissette can change in Iga’s game. He only says that “we will see in a very short time” whether Iga will find a new impulse with the help of the Belgian.
Today, all we know is that Świątek’s Ferrari will travel the next stages with a new driver. But it remains to be seen whether and how he will pursue further triumphs.
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