Christmas came to the judge and began to complain. This match is a lesson for her

With Kasatkina 6: 3, 6: 0, with Sabalenka 6: 2, 6: 3, with Sakkari 6: 4, 6: 3, and in the final with Kontaveit 6: 2, 6: 0 – this is how she played for Doha. None of the really good rivals gave a chance. She played with the players from the top 10 in the world ranking as if they were much lower. She impressed with self-confidence, precision, versatility, constant pressure and dictating conditions.

The Ukrainian woman was afraid, Iga was nervous

Why did we see a completely different Igê in the first match of the next tournament? In the first set of the match against 50 in the world Anhelina Kalinina, our 20-year-old was disturbed even by the sounds coming from the bars on the courts in. Iga was also irritated by all the longer exchanges and, impatiently, she spoiled the shares for power.

Swiatek lost the first set 5: 7, because she made 28 unforced mistakes (!) And was broken four times. Kalinina was clearly surprised when she moved from 2: 4 to 5: 4 and served to win the set. Then she made three double service errors. Playing her normal tennis, Świątek would most likely have come out of 5: 5 to 7: 5 after such a gift from a stressed opponent and it would be after the set. But Iga did not play her normal tennis at all.

And that’s probably a normal thing. It is very possible that Świątek played the worst match this year. The already torn victory with Viktorija Golubić in Doha (6: 2, 3: 6, 6: 2) was not pretty. After that meeting, Iga left the court visibly nervous. But apparently she has worked well enough that the four consecutive matches in Qatar have been brilliant.

Iga Świątek knows everything. But he is still learning

This is what overworking is all about. Świątek can do everything – he can play amazing tennis. When she has her day, she can win with any rival. And he wins! But Iga is also still a very young player, she is still only a 20-year-old. And her game must still undulate sometimes. Although enough for Iga to have problems in a given match, to get tired. Generally – let us remember this – Iga is a model of reliability. She adds, for example, a series of achieving a minimum of the fourth round of each Grand Slam tournament from six such tournaments to the flashes and shines giving the tournaments won (2020, Adelaide 2021, Rome 2021, Doha 2022). In 2021, Świątek was the only tennis player in the world to reach the second week of each Grand Slam event.

In Indian Wells, which is second only to slam, Świątek can also go very far. She can win this tournament. Iga has learned a lot again, we can be sure of that. She already played the second set with Kalinina better. It withstood in situations where it broke in the first set. Example: at 2: 0 and 0:40 in games, she defended three breakpoints, she could not break off, she came out at 3: 0 at the moment when it could quickly be 2: 2. Iga then began to concentrate and stopped frustrating. She started to excite herself by shouting and stopped demotivating herself by loud complaining.

Effect? A 6-0 win in 34 minutes. In the next set it was 6: 1 for Iga in 29 minutes (in total the match lasted 2 hours and 1 minute, of which 58 minutes took the first set). And although, contrary to the results, these were not concert sets, they were definitely a time for Iga to return to herself, to release her potential and prove her mental power. First and foremost.