THIS is Iga Swiatek’s BIGGEST Problem Right Now

Intro EOS fiance's 2024 slam season came to an end on Wednesday night after Jessica Pula handed her a 6264 loss in the US Open quarterfinal Pula had never before won a slam quarterfinal falling short in her six previous attempts Pula winning maybe shouldn't be such a shock considering how well that she's played lately and fiance struggles at the slams not named roling garos but the loss does highlight a notable issue perhaps preventing the world number one from soaring to Greater height hey my name is Christian Bass and welcome to Christian's Court where I cover tennis from all angles if you have not yet already make sure you subscribe and click the notification Bell so you're notified whenever I post more content more US Open content just more tennis content addressing this match with Pula How Jessica Pegula dominated Iga Swiatek EA did not started off well at all she only landed one first serve in and her first six service points in the opening game she was broken right off the bat and it was the first time that she was broken in like 24 consecutive service games and she she hadn't gotten broken since the first round against Camila Rakim MOA in fact Eagle lost her first two service games here to go down the double break shean only made 36% of her first serves in in the first set and Pula was very resourceful she took her second serve returns early and on the rise to Rob Shian of time Pula maintained her double break Advantage for the remainder of the set thanks to her outlasting fiance in many of the Baseline exchanges EGA unsurprisingly left the court after dropping the opener and she came out in that white on kit that she had wor wor a couple rounds prior and she did improve her first serve percentage to 87% first serves in in the second set but while least she won fewer points behind her first serve in the second set despite having a higher first serve in percentage which was some part due to pigula solid returning and then Eagle was simply very air prone she ended with 12 winners fiance to 41 unforced airs in this match obviously eaga did not play close to her top level but many players would have still I think lost the second set even the third set toan so credit to Pula for definitely getting the job done I think that the American played the perfect match by constantly applying pressure to the world number one Pula lost the early break advantage in the second set and EA did improve Midway through that second set and it would have been easy to let shance right back in and take control of set number two but pigula handled business on her serve and she hung in there to take advantage of another Shion Tech unforced air spray eek could have gotten away with playing like this against a samsonova or penov not saying that she played like that against them but even if she had brought this level against those two players I think she could have still come out with the w but they just are not as consistent and solid as pigula is combined that with how pigula is a better mover and it's clear that shance would struggle due to her having to play longer rallies and eosa tolerance was not that great Why Swiatek struggles on faster courts tonight this result follows a pattern of recent eager losses in big tournaments they tend to come against players who hit with good depth and P pace and on faster surfaces saena definitely overpowered and out hit her in their Cincinnati open semi-final last month as did raka and their St car semifinal as well as alexandrova in Miami and alak skaya in Dubai it was a s story for EA and all these losses and her kind of going off the rails and her forehead breaking down a lot due to the pressure from her opponents however we rarely see the type of erratic play from her on slower surfaces that begs a question is EA only GR or is she only capable of being dominant on the slower Court I do not think it's appropriate to call her a clay Court Merchant because she does have big titles on hard courts in addition to winning the 2022 US Open six out of her 10 1,000 trophies have come on hard however her most successful hardcore tournaments Indian Wells which she has won twice and Doha which she's won three times notoriously play slower and we all know Klay courts play slower and it's by far EA's best surface she's won four rolling gals titles and four 1000 on the dirt when clay rolls around it lowkey feels like everyone else is playing for second place but on fast or paced surfaces EGA is rarely the favorite or at least she shouldn't be judging from her track record I feel like there are two main reasons why EA excels on the slower surfaces for one it's harder to hit through her thanks to her incredible defensive capabilities and supreme athleticism she cannot defend as well on grass or on the faster hard qu cours because she simply doesn't have the time to especially against a big hitter also her forehand is simp simply a much stronger weapon on the slower courts shch is aided whenever she has more time on her forehand especially with that extreme grip on faster courts the big hitters can rush her and extract wild unforced errors from that Wing like we saw a bit tonight in this Pula match I think this discussion is interesting and worth having because EA has not progressed past a non-am semi-final since she won the 2022 US Open even then EA had to scrap and did not play her a-level game that tournament if we're being honest Arena sabalenka should have beaten her in that semi-final but Arena mentally collapsed there when she was in a winning position it will be harder I feel for Shan to win a hard or grasscourt major because for one her biggest threat there arena saena is the best hardcore slam player and she has improved her mentality and two the tour has improved since 2022 and they have a better gauge on how to beat EA at least on faster surfaces I for sure think EGA can win multiple Majors on Fast hardcore at least and perhaps even dominate them the easiest way to do this right now at least is to not change anything and hope to take advantage of a weaker draw perhaps in a major and not have to face a big consistent hitter which normally trip her up but of course it's better to take a proactive approach here it is important for EA to continue making improvements in her serve big serving helps a lot on the faster surfaces and the surve has been an asset for her in the US Open until she ran into Pulu where somehow the surve just deserted her but I think continuing to have routine and easy service hopes will do wonders for her in these faster Court slams I also think it helped egoa if she maybe incorporates a different game style against a bigger hitter she does not have to be an aggressive ball Striker all the time she can use her defensive skills like she did in 2022 at the US Open and play more like a counter puncher and extract more airs from her opponent similar to what Coco golf often does we could just chalk this one up to EA having a bad night but really EA has not been in great form since Wimbledon or since she won ringos to be honest she played a lot of tennis this year and the intense Clay run of her winning Madrid Ro ring gals and also going deep in stutgart that's a lot of tennis we also can underestimate the toll that playing the Olympics has done on her and countless other players EA will take Solus though and knowing that she also struggled a bit during this period last year before finishing the year strong with a 1,000 title in Beijing and taking home the year and finals trophy so maybe with some somewhat decent rest she'll be back to do the same however the big The Swiatek slam problem concern for Shon is her not having strong slam success outside of Roland garos sablan is a better slam player than EA as far as she consistently goes deep in each and every major that she plays in but fanc is number one because she does well at the bigger non-slam tournaments which tend to be played on slower courts it could also perhaps be a mental thing with Shan Tech and getting tight at the non rang slams due to her not having the same level of comfort at these tournaments she did almost suffer a second round loss to Naomi Osaka at this year's rolling but I think that was mostly due to Naomi just playing out of her mind you could also argue that EA's grueling schedule does not allow her to really Peak for the majors even in her press conference after the Pula loss she was asked if she was going to take a little bit of a break after you know she lost the US Open but she was like why would I take a break if I'm not injured I guess I'm I don't want to take a break so I mean it's tough I mean it's it could be a little bit easier but I'm I'm keeping up with the schedule I'm pretty I'm only talking about mandatory tournaments and the rules about mandatory tournaments but I'm ready for playing till November I guess unless I'm going to get injured on one hand it's good because it shows you that she loves tennis and it's honestly why she's number one but it also it's not so great because first it risk burnout and then two it could also be why she does not conly perform as well at the slams compared to aabal Lenka who was not afraid to skip a tournament or two Serena made adjustments in her schedule around 2015 and that's when she started playing a lighter schedule and she had a lot more slam success afterwards I feel like EA should do the same Shan also draws comparisons to former player Justine enan aside from her cap and ponytail combo the Belgian also had a stretch of dominance at randos winning four titles there and a 5 years span but in her relatively shorter career henon also picked up two US opens and one Australian making multiple finals at all four majors fonc will likely end up surpassing henin's seven slam title count but can she consistently make deep runs at all four majors like henon did team fian's biggest challenge right now is getting EA to perform consistently well on faster courts and at non-rolling gero slams at just 23 years old and already winning five major titles she's doing just fine and I feel like she has plenty of time to try to work through this also she's human and she's not going to win every single big tournament or slam that she plays in I feel like literally anyone on tour would die to have her trophy cabinet however I think if these issues aren't properly addressed it might hold Shian back from reaching her full potential and joining the ranks of the all-time great is EA simply a slowc court Merchant or does she have the potential to dominate The Fast courts too also what do you think Shian needs to do in order to have more success at all four slams again makes you also subscribe and click the notification Bell so you're notified whenever I post more content like this thank you all so much for your support and I'll see yall next time here on Christian Court