Despite being a five-time Grand Slam champion, Iga Swiatek is yet to make a major impact at the Australian Open.
The world No.2’s best result at Melbourne Park was a semifinal finish in 2022, the same year she won the US Open and the second of four Roland Garros titles.
The panel on the first episode in a new season of The Tennis – the podcast formerly known as The AO Show Weekly – discussed Swiatek’s relative underperformance at the year’s first Grand Slam event.
One of the panellists was Australian tennis great Todd Woodbridge, who believed a slice backhand was the key to unlocking Swiatek’s full AO potential.
"There's a new coaching team [now including Wim Fissette], and hopefully in the off-season they've been running over to the backhand corner and hitting some slice backhands – a defensive shot to get back into play,” Woodbridge said.
"[It’s] one shot required for her to go another level here, and that's to get a defensive ball, to get it back into play, and get back neutral into the court.
"If she can have been working on that, I promise you you'll see a different look from Iga. It will allow her to use her forehand better, and set things up.
“And she doesn't have that shot. Doesn't use it. That's all.”
Fellow panellist Sam Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, countered that Swiatek’s open-stance backhand at end range was so good that she might not need to resort to a defensive slice.
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"I guess maybe she's also been so good at being able to out there with the two hands, and she is so physical and been able to dominate points early,” Stosur observed.
“She hasn't really needed it, perhaps?”
Woodbridge agreed, but felt the introduction of a slice backhand would still benefit a player looking to expand her trophy cabinet and reclaim the world No.1 ranking she had previously held for a total of 125 weeks.
"She trained to go out there to the backhand corner on the left foot, open stance, and be able to muscle the ball, with two hands, back. That was her defensive backhand. That's good,” he said.
“But what it doesn't do is allow you to take pace off, float the ball a little deeper, so that you get an extra meter to get back to the centre of the court. It also doesn't allow you to hit a shorter ball, to bring your opponent forward slightly.
"So really it's [about] just adding to her repertoire, and if you think about how good she's been, and then you go, 'well, if she can learn that, and add that, oh, here we go'.
"If I was in that [new coaching] team, that would be my focus. Because then she can use her forehand way better on this court at the Australian Open."
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