Barbara Rittner full of praise for ‘dominant’ Iga Swiatek, but grass surface provides a big challenge

Barbara Rittner waxed lyrical about Iga Swiatek’s progress after winning the French Open, and says the biggest challenge for the Pole is to translate her dominance onto grass. Rittner highlighted Swiatek’s physical and mental strengths in a hard-fought path to glory at Roland-Garros. Ad/> «It was remarkable how she managed to deal with these unbelievably high expectations at just 21 years of age,” she told Eurosport Podcast Das Gelbe vom Ball.

Roland-Garros‘A miracle for any normal person’ – Nadal’s injury defiance ‘spectacular’, says doctor2 HOURS AGO »She has given the last proof of how good she is and what she is able to achieve. She showed that she can find ways to deal with difficult situations even during the tournament. «She didn't play her best tennis from the start, and struggled a bit in the third round, then didn't win so easily afterwards, but then played her very best tennis in the semi-final and final — she didn't give Jessica Pegula or Coco Gauff the slightest chance.

“She herself described what the title means to her, how valuable it is. In doing so, she impressively underlined the dominant role the No. 1 in world tennis is in right now, not only in terms of her game, but also mentally.» However, Rittner added that grass offers a threat to Swiatek’s dominance.

«The biggest challenge now is the grass. Iga has shown what she is able to do on hard courts, has impressively proven that she can continue seamlessly on clay,» she said. «Clay has always been her best surface.

On grass, she lost to Ons Jabeur in the fourth round at Wimbledon last year — admittedly in three sets, but 1-6 and 1-6 in the second and third set. On the other hand, she won the youth tournament there in in 2018 as well. »So, it will be