Iga Swiatek has survived her fourth round match against Elena Rybakina to continue her bid for a fifth French Open title.
Swiatek is the defending French Open champion, and has not lost a match at the Paris major since 2021.
However, the Pole appears more vulnerable than ever this year, with Swiatek suffering an early exit in Rome leading into the French Open.
Despite the concerns over the world number five, Swiatek has impressed in some of her early round performances at the French Open this year, but found herself in a perilous position against Rybakina.
Coco Gauff’s former coach has noticed what Iga Swiatek is now really struggling with
In the fourth round match against former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, Swiatek found herself 6-1 2-0 down.
The 24-year-old battled back to win the second set, with Swiatek eventually able to come through in a close fought decider, winning 1-6 6-3 7-5.
Someone who had a keen eye on the match was the former coach of Coco Gauff, Brad Gilbert, who pointed out an area of Swiatek’s game that he thinks has worsened in recent times.
Rybakina is one of the hardest hitting players on the WTA Tour, and Gilbert believes Swiatek was struggling to absorb that power.
Gilbert wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “The biggest thing I notice lately in Iga’s game, how much trouble she is having absorbing pace hard down the middle especially to the forehand, players definitely would try before and force much more to the corners and not use middle.”
This is supported by some of Swiatek’s recent losses to the likes of Jelena Ostapenko and Danielle Collins, both players who are big strikers of the ball.
Rennae Stubbs criticises Iga Swiatek’s serve against Elena Rybakina
That is not the only area of Swiatek’s game that has received criticism in her match against Rybakina.
Former doubles world number one Rennae Stubbs, who has been critical of Swiatek’s serve in the past, made a strong claim when Rybakina took the first set of the match.
Stubbs wrote, “Iga poor serving is going to crush her in this match. I don’t know why she doesn’t hit a Kick serve as a first serve particularly on the second court. And if you don’t serve well against Elena, your toast.”
Despite hitting seven double faults in the match, Swiatek managed to raise her level and significantly increased her first serve percentage in sets two and three.
| Swiatek’s Serve vs Rybakina | First Set | Second Set | Third Set |
| Aces | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Double Faults | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| First Serve % | 44% | 65% | 58% |
| First Serve Win % | 45% | 67% | 68% |
| Second Serve Win % | 43% | 46% | 56% |
| Games Broken | 2 | 1 | 1 |
This has enabled Swiatek to progress to her sixth French Open quarter-final, where she will play Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.
Swiatek leads the head-to-head against Svitolina 3-1, but they have not played on clay since the 2021 Italian Open.
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