United Cup: Iga Swiatek vs Karolina Muchova RR analysis

Serve and volley, return and charge, net approaches, Deuce court forehands and finally backhands during crunch time. All part of a very entertaining first match of 2025!

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best for 2025!

New Year’s day was very generous to tennis fans, offering us the fourth installment of the rivalry between Iga Swiatek and Karolina Muchova. If the 2023 Roland Garros final rematch looked promising on paper, the contest played inside Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena was a thrilling show. A great way to start Year 2 of our end-to-end season coverage of women’s pro tennis. Welcome back and thank you for your interest!

cover📸 source: United Cup

Following a tight and hard-fought 6-3, 6-4 win for Swiatek — looking sharper off the ground, more patient and fresher mentally in comparison to the second half of 2024 — over the always stylistic and fun-to-watch Muchova, these were our main takeaways:

1. Muchova was excellent serving and volleying

2. Muchova also did great returning and charging, but…

3. Once rallies developed, Swiatek stole the net away from Muchova

4. After a slow start, Swiatek dominated the forehand groundstroke battle and long rallies

5. At the tail end of each set, Swiatek’s backhand came through while Muchova couldn’t keep up

1. Muchova was excellent serving and volleying

In their 2023 Roland Garros final, Muchova went 5-for-5 serving and volleying (S&V), always coming in behind wide 1st serves.

This time, Muchova served and volleyed 11 times, winning 9 points (82%).

• Muchova was 9-for-10 on S&V points after wide 1st serves

• and 0-for-1 on S&V point after a T 1st serve

Distribution and win-rates of Muchova’s 1st serves on her serve and volley attempts

Once again, the Czech hit some gorgeous volleys while running her favourite S&V pattern: a wide 1st serve followed by a volley into the open court.

→ A compilation of Muchova’s S&V points won off the first volley (4 of 5 were won with a wide serve and a volley to the other side).

📺 source: Tennis Tv

The only instance Muchova lost a S&V point after a wide serve was when she went for the riskier drop-volley.

Coincidentally, Muchova’s toughest S&V point came in the single occasion she served down the T. Swiatek was able to hit a great, dipping return.

2. Muchova also did great returning and charging, but…