Iga Swiatek's coach Tomasz gives his verdict on her "successful" 2022 season, feels World no. 1 still has room for improvement despite stellar year
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek lost in the semifinals of the 2022 WTA Finals to seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka to cap off an incredible season.
The Polish player ended the season with a 67-9 win/loss record, winning two majors and eight titles. But her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski mentioned that there were some areas for improvement for the 21-year-old.
In an interview with Sport.Pl, Wiktorowmski revealed that it was disappointing to end a successful season with a loss but pointed out that Swiatek had to take another step and not move backward in her game.
"A successful season, although it is always a pity to end the year with a loss. In top-level tennis, you have to keep a certain distance to the results, and a bit of modesty. Continue to realize that there is much room for improvement and use the time to improve. When you stand still, it moves backwards, because others are move forward," said Wiktorowski. (Translated by Google)
"Today's game was not going well from the beginning" - Iga Swiatek's coach on her exit from the 2022 WTA Finals
Iga Swiatek lost in three enthralling sets to Sabalenka 2-6, 6-1, 2-6 to bow out of the event. Wiktorowski, in his analysis of the match, mentioned that things were not going in Swiatek's favor from the beginning.
"Today's game was not going well from the beginning. It is because of Iga's few mistakes. There was a bit of a risk. She also did not use one piece of information about the direction of her opponent's serving. This resulted in Sabalenka's advantage at the beginning of the match. Then it was hard to come back, with a good-looking rival, and then with Iga playing a bit worse," he said.
He admitted that the Pole was a bit slow to track down some balls and take control of the points in the match. He revealed that it was not Iga Swiatek's first loss of the season and expects the mistakes to not be repeated in the upcoming matches.
"This is because she reacted a little worse on the court today, and not because her rival was playing very quickly. This is not Iga's first loss this season. They even loses in a successful season like this one. You can lose a few games and still consider the season very successful. This is how we look at this season. I hope that these few mistakes made today will not be repeated, at least with this rival," he concluded.