Alex Corretja finds ‘no reason’ to not pick Iga Swiatek as the favourite for the 2022 Wimbledon Championships
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Alex Corretja and Iga Swiatek
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek will be back in action to contest for her 3rd career Grand Slam title and her first at the All-England Club as the Pole has been deservingly made the top seed at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. After her brilliant run this season that sees her being on a 35-match unbeaten streak, she comes into the Grand Slam with six consecutive titles including the 2022 French Open having dropped a set only 6 times during her winning streak.
While her streak came on hardcourts and claycourts, her ability to continue the streak on grass is a question for many tennis enthusiasts. Swiatek is a former junior champion at the Grand Slam in 2018 and is now the top seed going into this year’s Championships so that should be some answer to her doubters but the fact that she has not played any match on grass due to an injury in her shoulder that will see her make her grass debut for the season directly at the All-England Club.
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“Why can she not play well there?”: Alex Corretja questions Iga Swiatek’s doubters
Speaking about the Pole’s chances at the upcoming Grand Slam, former World No. 2 and now an analyst, Alex Corretja gave his two cents on why it is unjust to rule out Swiatek as the contender for Wimbledon despite her not-so-dominant record on the surface. The thing that can counter it is also the fact that there was no grass season held in 2020 due to the Pandemic and Iga did manage to reach the 4th round at the 2021 Wimbledon with very less experience on the surface.
“I think for Iga, the most important moment of the year was Roland-Garros. After she’s been winning so many matches in a row, if you go to Paris and you don’t win the tournament, then you might feel like, ‘okay, I’ve been doing very good, but then in the Grand Slam I’m not winning. That might create some issues in her mind with believing she is going to be capable of doing it. Everything now is clear.
“It’s already an unbelievable season. On grass, why can she not play well there? I mean, she moves well, she hits hard, she serves well, she’s aggressive. Of course, sometimes you can feel maybe from the forehand side she might struggle a little bit, but after she’s been winning so many matches she has got real confidence. She will need maybe a few matches to adjust herself, and also it will depend on the opponent she faces. If they give her rhythm, she can have what she’s been missing through the grass-court season so far.
“She’s going to be motivated to keep on going. She’s got more confidence than anyone else. But I think she should also go match-by-match and wait to see how she deals with all the movements and all the groundstrokes, which is a little bit different to clay. But there is no reason why Iga cannot succeed and do well at Wimbledon, honestly,” said Corretja speaking on Eurosport.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)