{"id":240,"date":"2024-05-28T06:25:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T06:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesheraldglobalnews.com\/2024\/05\/28\/iga-swiateks-tennis-bagels-how-the-wta-world-no-1-bakes-her-6-0-sets\/"},"modified":"2024-05-28T06:25:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T06:25:12","slug":"iga-swiateks-tennis-bagels-how-the-wta-world-no-1-bakes-her-6-0-sets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/2024\/05\/28\/iga-swiateks-tennis-bagels-how-the-wta-world-no-1-bakes-her-6-0-sets\/","title":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek\u2019s (tennis) bagels: How the WTA world No 1 bakes her 6-0 sets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/live-blogs\/french-open-2024-live-updates-zverev-nadal-score-result\/bfwJkGRJniDa\/\"><i><span>Follow live coverage of the second day of the French Open 2024 today, including Zverev vs Nadal<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">This article is part of the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5481626\/\">launch of extended tennis coverage on The Athletic<\/a>, which will go beyond the baseline to bring you the biggest stories on and off the court. To follow the tennis vertical, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/tennis\/\">click here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Getting \u2018bagelled\u2019 in tennis is a humiliation.<\/p>\n<p>To not win a single game suggests a mismatch, that one of the players is either out of their depth or having a terrible day on court.<\/p>\n<p>Bagels \u2014 as sets that end 6-0 are known, because the zero looks like one \u2014 are seen as such an embarrassment largely because they are so rare. Twelve per cent of WTA Tour matches in 2023 included a bagel, according to data from Opta.<\/p>\n<p>In just five years on tour however, world No 1 Iga Swiatek has shattered this orthodoxy.<\/p>\n<p>During 2023, Swiatek won a bagel set in 29 per cent of her matches. That\u2019s almost one in three. Her total of 23 bagels for the year was 15 higher than the players with the second-most on the women\u2019s tour \u2014 <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5220996\/2024\/01\/23\/coco-gauff-australian-open-tennis\/\">Coco Gauff<\/a> and Jessica Pegula, both with eight. Excluding matches Swiatek played in, the average for the WTA Tour last year was a bagel set in just 11.4 per cent of matches, according to Opta.<\/p>\n<p>For Swiatek\u2019s WTA career as a whole, an average of 40.6 per cent of her matches have included either a 6-0 set or a 6-1.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5511961\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5511961 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22081941\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-clay-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22081941\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-clay-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22081941\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-clay-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22081941\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-clay-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22081941\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-clay-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22081941\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-clay-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"table-cell-span\"\/><br \/><span class=\"credits-text\">Swiatek is ruthless in running over opponents (Dan Istitene\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>That\u2019s a bagel or breadstick in close to half of her tour matches \u2014 you can see why the term \u201cIga\u2019s Bakery\u201d has entered tennis parlance.<\/p>\n<p>Heading into the looming French Open, where Swiatek is a three-time champion and winner of the past two tournaments, she shows no signs of slowing down. In 2024, Swiatek has won the most bagel sets (eight) of anyone on the WTA Tour, ahead of Gauff (seven) and Aryna Sabalenka (five).<\/p>\n<p>In her last two events \u2014 <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5460189\/2024\/05\/06\/tennis-briefing-nadal-shirt-swiatek-sabalenka-final\/\">winning the title in Madrid<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5495220\/2024\/05\/20\/tennis-briefing-iga-swiatek-and-alexander-zverev-win-italian-open\/\">also in Rome<\/a> \u2014 Swiatek has dished out three bagel sets. And <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5434962\/2024\/04\/23\/iga-swiatek-100-weeks-world-number-one-stats\/\">as\u00a0<em>The Athletic <\/em>showed last month<\/a>, her number of bagels per week while world No 1 stacks up against the greats \u2014 bettered only by 18-time Grand Slam champion Chris Evert.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 700px;\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/18072984\/embed\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But how does she do it? Using data from Hawk-Eye and speaking to the players who have to face her each week, including world No 3 Gauff, world No 4 and Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, and Grand Slam winners including Victoria Azarenka and Marketa Vondrousova, here are the staple ingredients at Iga\u2019s Bakery.<\/p>\n<div class=\"go-deeper\">\n<div class=\"go-deeper-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=128,height=128,fit=cover,format=auto\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/23043859\/Iga-Swiatek-100-weeks-World-No-1-scaled-e1713861594150-1024x512.jpg\" class=\"go-deeper\" alt=\"go-deeper\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"go-deeper-label\">GO DEEPER<\/p>\n<p class=\"go-deeper-title\">Iga Swiatek\u2019s 100 weeks as world No 1: The streak, the slams, the bagels<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr\/>\n<p>To regularly win bagel sets, you have to be solid in all areas, particularly in returning well enough that every game is about who is the better tennis player, rather than the better server.<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek is a master of this, and that\u2019s why she is so good at running away with sets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe doesn\u2019t have any holes in her game,\u201d says world No 11 Daria Kasatkina, who has lost in straight sets the last five times she\u2019s played Swiatek. These include a 6-3, 6-0 defeat in Doha, Qatar two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn tennis in general, that\u2019s very important. She returns very well, and though sometimes she can have some troubles on serve, generally she\u2019s very stable in all aspects. She can switch from defence to attack very quickly. So for me, this is one of her weapons. And mentally, she is very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5512040\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5512040 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22084730\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-smash-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22084730\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-smash-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22084730\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-smash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22084730\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-smash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22084730\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-smash-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22084730\/Iga-Swiatek-bagel-sets-smash-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"table-cell-span\"\/><br \/><span class=\"credits-text\">Swiatek has 21 titles at 22, including four Grand Slams (Michael Owens\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/4693429\/2023\/07\/15\/marketa-vondrousova-wimbledon-champion-final\/\">Vondrousova, the world No 6 and reigning Wimbledon champion<\/a>, has played Swiatek three times and is yet to win a set, suffering a bagel and two breadsticks. \u201cIf she\u2019s on fire, there\u2019s not much you can do. She doesn\u2019t have a worse side to try and hit,\u201d Vondrousova says.<\/p>\n<p>Having accumulated over 100 weeks as world No 1, Swiatek\u2019s base level is clearly outstanding \u2014 even in sets she doesn\u2019t win to love or one. But is there anything she does especially differently when running away with it?<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Using Hawk-Eye data,\u00a0<em>The Athletic<\/em> has sorted Swiatek\u2019s sets played into bagels and those that were 6-2 or closer.<\/p>\n<p>In her bagel sets, Swiatek produces more unreturned serves: 31 per cent compared to 27 per cent. Her service games get quicker by 17 seconds on average as a result; her return games, meanwhile, speed up by 16 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>This supports what the eye-test says. Watching Swiatek put another bagel in the oven, it feels that things are spiralling quickly out of control for her opponent. This is demonstrated by the average length of return games, which are three minutes and 18 seconds if it\u2019s game one of a bagel set; four minutes and 48 seconds if it\u2019s the third game; and three minutes and three seconds if it\u2019s the sixth.<\/p>\n<p>By this point, whoever Swiatek is playing is seemingly thinking, \u2018Please, make it stop\u2019, and is almost happy to get off the court. By the sixth game of a bagel set, Swiatek hits her returns four miles per hour faster on average than in game one \u2014 reflecting a higher level of aggression as she motors towards the finishing line.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Swiatek returns far better in sets she wins 6-0 than in the ones that are 6-2 or closer. She returns 88 per cent of first serves and 92 per cent of second serves in the former, compared to 79 per cent and 84 per cent in the latter.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5515506\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5515506 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/23114349\/GettyImages-1487359451-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/23114349\/GettyImages-1487359451-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/23114349\/GettyImages-1487359451-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/23114349\/GettyImages-1487359451-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/23114349\/GettyImages-1487359451-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/23114349\/GettyImages-1487359451-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"table-cell-span\"\/><br \/><span class=\"credits-text\">Swiatek is a master of playing with a lead (Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As well as getting more balls in play, she returns more aggressively in bagel sets. Her first-serve return hit point is closer to the baseline (12.2m from the net compared to 12.4m) and her first-serve return net clearance is lower (87cm compared to 92cm).<\/p>\n<p>These are small numbers in isolation, but put together they add up to Swiatek strangling her opponents\u2019 game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like her depth was so good from the first ball,\u201d world No 16 Madison Keys, who in the past few weeks has lost 6-1, 6-3 to Switaek in both Madrid and Rome, says of that first meeting. \u201cShe makes you feel like you can never get your foot on the gas. And then, all of a sudden, you\u2019re the one backing up off the baseline, and that\u2019s not a scenario you want to find yourself in. You don\u2019t want to be behind the baseline trying to run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe puts you in a tricky position because you feel like you have to go for something you don\u2019t want to and then you\u2019re threading the needle between going for something that could be dumb but also feeling like it\u2019s kind of the only thing you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Players don\u2019t just struggle to stay with her \u2014 she takes matches away from them.<\/p>\n<p>When Swiatek is rolling, she gets more clinical.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5512083\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5512083 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22090319\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Blur-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22090319\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Blur-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22090319\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Blur-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22090319\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Blur-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22090319\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Blur-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22090319\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Blur-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"table-cell-span\"\/><br \/><span class=\"credits-text\">Facing Swiatek on a roll can be a disorienting experience (Julian Finney\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Break-point conversion rises to 67.9 per cent in bagel sets from 54.7 in closer ones, and she wins 31.5 per cent of converted break points with a winner, compared to 26.1 per cent. In general, Swiatek\u2019s winners as a proportion of her points won go up in bagel sets (from 26.1 per cent to 28.9), as do points won from forced errors (17.2 per cent up to 18.5 per cent).<\/p>\n<p>As Keys explained, a lot of those forced errors come from players feeling like they have to go for more than they are really comfortable with.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>What is striking about all these data points is that Swiatek\u2019s groundstrokes don\u2019t change all that much.<\/p>\n<p>Her average forehand speed is the same (75mph), as is her average backhand speed (70mph). The spin rate is a bit higher during bagel sets on both the forehand (2476rpm compared to 2416) and on the backhand side (1965rpm compared to 1901), but not by much. Her average net clearance is similar on both wings as well.<\/p>\n<p>This suggests that the sequences where Swiatek rolls through games are as much about momentum and flow as they are technique. The dominance becomes self-fulfilling once she wins a few games, and she and her opponent both feel like they know what\u2019s coming next, so the starts and ends of points become more inevitable; what happens in between is less important.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Swiatek is not a player who eases into tournaments \u2014 she often racks up thumping wins early on, which although they are theoretically against weaker opponents, still send out a message to her rivals and make her even more ominous as she moves through a draw.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5438106\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5438106 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/23043859\/Iga-Swiatek-100-weeks-World-No-1-scaled-e1713861594150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/23043859\/Iga-Swiatek-100-weeks-World-No-1-scaled-e1713861594150.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/23043859\/Iga-Swiatek-100-weeks-World-No-1-scaled-e1713861594150-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/23043859\/Iga-Swiatek-100-weeks-World-No-1-scaled-e1713861594150-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/23043859\/Iga-Swiatek-100-weeks-World-No-1-scaled-e1713861594150-1536x768.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/23043859\/Iga-Swiatek-100-weeks-World-No-1-scaled-e1713861594150-2048x1024.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"table-cell-span\"\/><br \/><span class=\"credits-text\">Swiatek\u2019s remodelled serve has made her even more of a threat (Tim Clayton\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>One of Swiatek\u2019s predecessors as world No 1, Naomi Osaka, who lost 6-4, 6-0 when the pair last met two years ago, says it\u2019s \u201cincredible\u201d how Swiatek can keep delivering point after point, week after week: \u201cIt\u2019s something that I honestly can\u2019t fathom from back when I was No 1 for like five seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s her ability to play one point at a time that puts a lot of pressure on her opponents,\u201d says two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka, who has lost 6-4, 6-0 and 6-4, 6-1 to Swiatek in their two most recent meetings. \u201cNot many people can figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Keys, who has beaten Swiatek previously but has also suffered a 6-1, 6-0 defeat on top of those recent losses, agrees: \u201cHer intensity is basically unmatched by anyone else. She\u2019s on you every single point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion who was beaten 6-4, 6-1 by Swiatek in that year\u2019s French Open final, describes her as \u201csuper intense\u201d. During that run at Roland Garros four years ago, Swiatek won a breadstick set in six of her seven matches.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5512128\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5512128 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22092051\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Roland-Garros-Final-2020-scaled-e1716384098184.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1824\" height=\"1216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22092051\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Roland-Garros-Final-2020-scaled-e1716384098184.jpg 1824w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22092051\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Roland-Garros-Final-2020-scaled-e1716384098184-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22092051\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Roland-Garros-Final-2020-scaled-e1716384098184-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22092051\/Iga-Swiatek-Bagel-Roland-Garros-Final-2020-scaled-e1716384098184-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1824px) 100vw, 1824px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"table-cell-span\"\/><br \/><span class=\"credits-text\">Swiatek\u2019s win over Kenin was her first Grand Slam title (Martin Bureau\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This psychological torture doesn\u2019t stop when they get off the court.<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek\u2019s opponents \u2014 and would-be opponents as draws unfold \u2014 find themselves in a vicious cycle: the more bagel sets she wins, the more they fear them, and the more likely they become.<\/p>\n<p>Players are actively having to try to block out this reputation she has when preparing to face her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think if you start thinking, \u2018Ah, maybe I\u2019m gonna get a 6-0 from Iga\u2019, then you\u2019ll probably end up getting one,\u201d three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur, who lost the pair\u2019s most recent meeting 6-1, 6-2, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/uk\/5506736\">told<em> The Athletic<\/em> this week<\/a>. \u201cGetting that kind of karma.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot thinking like that is the most important thing. She\u2019s such an amazing player, but you should always think about yourself and not get into that mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5512179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5512179 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22093714\/Iga-Swiatek-US-Open-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22093714\/Iga-Swiatek-US-Open-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22093714\/Iga-Swiatek-US-Open-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22093714\/Iga-Swiatek-US-Open-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22093714\/Iga-Swiatek-US-Open-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/22093714\/Iga-Swiatek-US-Open-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"table-cell-span\"\/><br \/><span class=\"credits-text\">Swiatek\u2019s relentlessness creates an aura that her opponents sometimes struggle to handle (Sarah Stier\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This is easier said than done.<\/p>\n<p>Her opponents have a hard enough time managing their mental state before accounting for the fact that Swiatek is a master of diagnosing it from the other end of the court, feeding off it, and taking their mind as much as their body. She is an elite problem solver, having been a gifted mathematician at school; once she has figured a player out, there is very little they can do.<\/p>\n<p>Gauff, who has lost 10 of her 11 meetings with Swiatek (including 6-1, 6-3 in the French Open final two years ago) and has been bagelled by her three times, agrees: \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing her, you shouldn\u2019t worry about the results in the previous matches, because every day is a new match and a new opportunity. I think if you play her thinking about her results, then you probably (already) lost the match.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just approach every match as a clean slate. I think it\u2019s even more important when you\u2019re playing against somebody who has done well in the past, just because you don\u2019t want that to affect how you play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How hard is that to do?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, not that hard,\u201d Gauff says, \u201cjust because I feel like in the past, with the way my career has gone, I played a lot of big names early. I think I just got used to separating the name from, I guess, the match. So for me, it\u2019s not that difficult. Obviously, playing Iga herself is difficult. But I guess that aspect doesn\u2019t affect me when I\u2019m playing her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"flourish-embed-iframe\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px;\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/18085964\/embed\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Rybakina, who has a 4-2 winning record against Swiatek, says it\u2019s about being focused for every single point: \u201cYou have to constantly be saying to yourself what you have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To try to crack the code though, we turn to Jelena Ostapenko \u2014 the all-or-nothing Latvian who has an astonishing 4-0 winning record against Swiatek. How does she not only avoid getting bagelled by Swiatek, but actually find a way to beat her every time?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s my top secret,\u201d Ostapenko replies, with a grin. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OK, but how hard is it to live with her when she gets going? \u201cThat\u2019s my secret,\u201d she repeats.<\/p>\n<p>Time to put the bagel slicer away.<\/p>\n<p>And even if Ostapenko did reveal her secrets, knowing what to do to stop Swiatek is one thing; pulling it off under pressure is quite another.<\/p>\n<p>As tennis turns to Paris for this year\u2019s French Open, Iga\u2019s Bakery arrives in the viennoiserie capital of the world very much open for business.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>(Top photos: Patrick Smith; Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images; design: John Bradford<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/wol.com\/iga-swiateks-tennis-bagels-how-the-wta-world-no-1-bakes-her-6-0-sets\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Follow live coverage of the second day of the French Open 2024 today, including Zverev vs Nadal This article is part of the launch of extended tennis coverage on The Athletic, which will go beyond the baseline to bring you the biggest stories on and off the court. To follow the tennis vertical, click here. Getting \u2018bagelled\u2019 in tennis is a humiliation. To not win a single game suggests a mismatch, that one of the players is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[555,557,552,558,553,554,379,556],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bagels","tag-bakes","tag-iga","tag-sets","tag-swiateks","tag-tennis","tag-world","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainaccount.site\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}