Swiatek vs Osaka: Roland Garros Round 2 Analysis

The most reliable groundstroke in the world

cover 📸 credit: WTA Tour twitter

Defending champion and current world no.1 Iga Swiatek along with 4-times Major winner and former no.1 Naomi Osaka delivered a strong candidate for “match of the season”!

Three hours of intense ball-striking and a fair number of stressful, hard-fought games. A thrilling encounter that brought comparisons to Swiatek’s heroics three weeks ago in the WTA 1000 Madrid final against Aryna Sabalenka.

For a match played on clay, it was much closer than many antecipated.

Iga Swiatek won. But she needed to save a match point before extending her winning streak in Roland Garros to 16 matches (and current overall streak to 14 matches).

Naomi Osaka lost. But she held a set point in each set and won 5 more points in the match (114-109).

Parity abounded.

There was a near split when players duelled simultaneously from the back of the court — Swiatek won 70 points, Osaka won 68 (more on “match data” section).

There was a tie in 3 of 4 point-defining rally patterns when all 162 rallies were broken down. The only exception came from crosscourt rallies through the AD court (marked in red).

Rallies won in accordance to the point-defining pattern

Swiatek won 6 more rallies in the match (84-78). All of her advantage originated from points decided during backhand-to-backhand exchanges (21-15).

This is a great launching pad to our take-home message from this thrilling clash.

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Iga Swiatek’s backhand may not be very flashy.

But it’s probably the most reliable shot in the world. Especially on big moments!

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1. Swiatek’s Backhand