Every cloud has a silver lining, and so do Iga Swiatek’s tough times, says her coach, Wim Fissette! Swiatek has repeatedly reflected sheer dominance whenever she has stepped onto the courts in the last few years. Even this year, she started the season pretty well clinching five titles, but later on, after the French Open, she looked a bit rusty. Just before her third group stage match in Riyadh, we heard her say, “First time I’ve been in this situation.” Amid all these concerns, she still managed to clinch a phenomenal victory against Daria Kasatkina in that do-or-die match! However, despite a dominating performance, she was eliminated from the WTA Finals. Here’s what her coach had to say after that.

Despite coming up with a commanding 6-1,6-0 victory in just 51 minutes over Kasatkina, Iga Swiatek found herself ousted after Barbora Krejcikova stunned the world number three, Coco Gauff 7-5,6-4 in the WTA Finals. This is quite a disappointing ending to her campaign for the reigning champion! Iga Swiatek will now have to shift her focus towards the BJK Cup Finals, which kickstarts on November 13. However, before moving out of Riyadh, her coach, Wim Fissette looked quite satisfied with Swiatek’s performance.

No one expected this early exit of the defending champion, but Wim Fissette looks quite optimistic with Swiatek at the moment. After taking a long break after the US Open, this was her first tournament. Talking about Swiatek’s performance in the tournament, Fissette said, “I think the perfect match from Iga today, and yeah really happy to see her play this level you know. Like again for me it’s all pretty new. So I had ten days in Warsaw before coming here. Then saw a tough match with Krejcikova. The difficult match against Gauff and now I saw the perfect match against Kasatkina. So, I’m learning a lot.”

On Thursday, Iga Swiatek recorded the fastest victory at the WTA Finals in at least eight years. With this emphatic victory over Kasatkina, she has now also become the third woman to earn ten or more wins against Top 10 players in three consecutive seasons since 2000. How did she manage to come up with such a dominating performance after facing a disappointing loss against Coco Gauff in the previous match? Well, interestingly, Wim Fissette revealed that Swiatek didn’t train before facing Daria Kasatkina at the WTA Finals, but why?

“She is being monitored a lot by her team and trainer. They look at numbers in the morning and how she is recovering. The trainer decided that her numbers were not great yesterday and a day of recovery would help her more to be at her best today,” said Fissette. The 44-year-old Belgian doesn’t have a specific coaching philosophy, but rather he’s often seen catering to the needs of whatever particular player he’s coaching at the time. So, this type of analysis and studying the needs of the players plays a crucial role in his coaching. We saw that Fissette looked quite satisfied with Swiatek’s performance in Riyadh, but what does the Polish superstar think about her own performance?

Iga Swiatek forced to make an embarrassing confession after her dominating win against Daria Kasatkina

Sometimes, you need a bit of luck on a long journey and Iga Swiatek had none on Thursday! Shortly after wrapping up her match quickly against Daria Kasatkina, Iga Swiatek appeared at the post-match press conference. During the press conference, she was a bit surprised when the reporters informed her that her win against Kasatkina would not secure her a place in the SF. “You mean it didn’t matter,” Iga Swiatek asked the reporters and expressed her disappointment on losing out the chance to defend her title.

However, Swiatek said that she was happy with her performance in this tournament. “It was a pretty solid performance from me. I’m happy that I did everything to win it and glad I have two wins in the group now. I feel like I was spinning the ball well and picking the right shots to play faster and being solid. Thank you guys for the support. It means a lot and any place I go I hear this support. I haven’t played in a while and I miss this feeling of the support.” So, both the player and the coach looked quite satisfied with their campaign in Riyadh, but Coco Gauff literally pointed out the flaws in Swiatek’s game in the second group stage match!

What does Wim Fissette want to see Iga Swiatek improve? “Her serve, it’s clear there is room for improvement but I also think the forehand can be heavier and faster and we can add elements of variation to her game,” said Iga Swiatek’s new coach. Fissette said their goal is to do better on the faster services and he highlighted that he wants her to improve her serve a bit. He thinks Swiatek tries to play faster than her opponent which is not really her game. So, his advice to Iga Swiatek is that she should stay true to herself on the faster surfaces. With just a few days left before the action starts in Malaga, do you think we’re going to see some changes in her game at the BJK Cup Finals?