WTA500 Stuttgart: Jelena Ostapenko vs Iga Swiatek quarter-final analysis
How Ostapenko was once again Swiatek's kryptonite
Jelena Ostapenko (WTA #24) improved her flawless record against Iga Swiatek (WTA #2) to 6-0 with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win in the quarterfinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
Not even playing on her favoured clay and in one of her most successful courts helped Swiatek snap her losing streak to Ostapenko — the former world #1 entered the match with an 11-1 record and a 92% win-rate in Stuttgart.
Despite such formidable numbers, the queen at dishing out bagel sets on the WTA Tour couldn’t avoid being served up a head-to-head bagel from her nightmare opponent.
With the Ostapenko-Swiatek rivalry growing into one of the most intringuing and mind-boggling matchups in the history of tennis, this was an obvious extra match for us to analyse.
These were the major takeaways gathered:
Swiatek’s struggles against Ostapenko’s Deuce court wide 2nd serve sliders reached an all-time high
Both players were eager to strike aggressive returns and put pressure on the server; they did it with contrasting efficiencies
Against Ostapenko, Swiatek needs more from her backhand than its trademark solidity because she is losing the forehand battles
Ostapenko was the only one capable of riffling baseline winners when hitting the ball from close to the sidelines
1. Swiatek’s struggles against Ostapenko’s Deuce court wide 2nd serve sliders reached an all-time high
You may recall from the data we posted 2 months ago how Swiatek did poorly in Doha against Ostapenko’s Deuce court wide 2nd serves that were heavily sliced.
Forced off the court by those serves, Swiatek ended up missing 5 returns and only managed to win 3 of 14 points, for a very low 21% win-rate (marked by orange arrow and circle, below).
More facts and stats from their Doha semi-final, including a video compilation of Swiatek’s missed returns, are available here:
If those numbers were already bad for a player like Swiatek, they actually got dramatically worse in Stuttgart(!!!).