Iga Swiatek says she was puzzled by her inability to find a solution to her serving problems during her quarter-final defeat to Jessica Pegula at the US Open.
The top seed and former champion fell 6-2, 6-4, to Pegula who has reached the last four of a Grand Slam event for the first time at the age of 30. Swiatek was far from her best as she hit 41 unforced errors compared to only 12 winners. Behind her serve, she won just over half of the points played (53%) and was particularly vulnerable behind her second serve.
“For sure, it wasn’t a good performance from myself. But Jessie is used to it (Swiatek’s game), so she played better, I played worse, and she won.” The five-time major winner said during her press conference.
“When I was losing 4-0 in the first set, I tried to do the same kind of work as usual. I didn’t really understand why my serve wasn’t working. It was hard for me to find a proper solution for that.”
In recent months Swiatek has called for changes to the Tour calendar to ease the workload for players. However, she has played down the idea of taking a break from the sport following her latest defeat. She has played 65 matches so far this year.
“I don’t want to take a break,” Swiatek stated.
“It could be a little bit easier but I’m keeping up with the schedule. I’m only talking about mandatory tournaments andthere are rules about mandatory tournaments.
“But I’m ready for playing till November unless I’m going to get injured.”
Coming into the US Open, Swiatek said she had low expectations for herself. Even though she has won five titles since January, including the French Open, and a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. Swiatek has also won more matches (57) than any other WTA player in 2024.
Explaining her mentality, the 23-year-old says it is important not to underestimate her rivals.
“I’m always trying to have lower expectations because I know that any of us can win this tournament, and it’s not going to be easy,” she said.
“I feel like when I have high expectations, I never perform well. So I try to lower them.
“It’s not like it’s just low and that’s it because it’s hard to have low expectations when everybody is expecting something from you, and you kind of know that you might have a game to play well.”
As for Pegula, she will next take on Karoline Muchova for a place in the final. The American has won 14 out of her last 15 matches played and has now recorded 21 wins over top 10 players in her career.
