Last weekend Iga Swiatek won in Gyor, Hungary, her third ITF pro-title, following the one she gained a couple of months ago in Bergamo and the one in Stockholm in November 2016. This is not exactly three of a kind, since the latter was a 10k, whilst Bergamo and Gyor are 15ks; yet, this is the closest one can currently get to such poker hand, in light of the recent changes in ITF prizemoney rules.
The level of Gyor’s event was quite high, considering it was a 15k: five top 500 joined the event and the first seed was Gabriela Pantuchova, a sort of queen of 15ks who currently ranks in 279th spot: nevertheless, she was dismissed in the second round.
It didn’t take such an effort to win this tournament to Berghem-Iga (once I give a nickname to a player, I stick to it: Berghem-Iga will remain as such even if, eventually, this talented girl ends up winning a Slam), who entered directly in the main draw by exploiting a junior entry. Iga enjoyed a quite (if not very) lucky draw: she won the event playing against only one top 500, Sofiya Kovaleth, whom she met in the first round and who though retired on 1-0 in the first set in favour of the young Polish: so there was no match. In the second round Swiatek easily dismissed the Slovenian Nina Potocnic and, in the quarter finals, she benefitted again from a w/o against Diana Sumova; the latter, on her turn, had beaten in the first round the 3rd seed of the tournament, Anastasia Vdovenko.
The semifinal was played against 20 year old Hungarian Nagymihaly, a qualifier ranked over 700 WTA: this was the only round in which (quite unexpectedly) Iga found some troubles: she easily won the first set by 6-1, showing amazing stats: 70% of first serves in, which made her win more than 78% of the points; plus, she won 73% of points when returning her opponent’s first serve and more than 83% when returning her second serve. Though, it seems that at this stage Iga’s momentum vanished and she lost the second set by 6-4: her first serve stats dropped considerably and she was able to convert only one breakpoint over five. The third set, instead, was along the same lines as the first one: the score was the same (6-1 for Swiatek) and the stats are pretty consistent too: Iga lost her serve in the second game, but her opponent never managed to hold her own.
The final for Iga was, instead, completely downhill: she won 6-2 6-2 against another qualifier, the Czech Gabriela Horackova, a 26 year old girl ranked over 780 and who hadn’t had a ranking from 2010 to 2014. Overall Iga’s stats, again, were stunning: 66.7% of first serves in and more than 73% of points earnt; also her second serve was effective, since she gained more than 50% of points with it. In the first set there was a bit more of a struggle, apparently (I didn’t see the match of course; until I find someone who pays me to go to see a 15k in Hungary, I can’t do more than watching the live scores): on 2-1 in favour of the Polish there were 3 breaks in a row, which secured Swiatek a 4-2 lead; Iga managed then to hold her serve, even if she was forced to the advantages, and the match virtually ended: in the following game, Swiatek broke at 0, securing to herself the first set; the second set was effortless, since the Polish girl took a 4-1 lead and won it in 21 minutes, without conceding a single break point.
I guess it’s fair to state that this tournament was not the hardest challenge Iga has ever faced: she earnt it playing only three matches and without facing any particularly fierce opponent; having said that, the consistency of this girl has proven again to be really impressive: this was the second tournament she won in three attempts she has made this year; the only match she lost in 2017 on the Pro Tour (i.e. the first round of the 15k in Le Havre) was against the winner of the relevant event and, even more, Iga played it less than one month before having to take her final exam in school: it’s fair to assume that this latter situation affected her and that at the time she had other issues to think about. In the two tournaments she won, Swiatek lost 1 set only (i.e. the second set in the semifinal in Gyor); moreover, consider that, whilst both Bergamo and Gyor were played on clay, the 10k she won in Stockholm last year was played on hard courts: it seems that this young lady can be competitive on any surface and, having seen her playing, I think that, due to her physical strength and the power of her shots, she can be even more competitive on fast courts than on clay, at least potentially. Last, but not least, Iga has played only 7 tournaments on the Pro Tour during her short career and, as said, she won 3 of them. All the number above are indeed impressive: it’s always difficult to make predictions on a 15 year old girl, but indeed Berghem-Iga is a serious candidate to become a very, very strong player.
Swiatek was also enrolled in the qualification draw of the 25k event currently played in Dunakestzi (Hungary): having reached the semis in Gyor, though, she decided (or was forced, since she is not ubiquitous, yet) to drop out: pity, because she can indeed afford to move a step higher, and I was curious to see how she would have performed against better ranked opponents. Nevertheless, one has also to consider that Iga is very young and she is still committed to the Junior Tour: she has all the time of the world to try to compete in more challenging events.
The 25k in Dunakestzi should have been played also by Kaja Juvan, who suffered, though, a (hopefully light) injury to her foot: having acknowledged this news, I decided to break my own foot, to be sympathetic to my Beloved One; a wild card has been instead granted to Marta Kostyuk (I still miss a suitable nickname for her): let’s see what she will do with it.
