“Stay strong, because the war is still here,” she said as the crowd gave her message a long applause under the now closed roof. Swiatek,...
“Stay strong, because the war is still here,” she said as the crowd gave her message a long applause under the now closed roof.
Swiatek, an avid reader and excellent student during her high school years, is a particularly thoughtful and committed young champion. Gauff, the prodigy from Delray Beach, Florida, is a particularly thoughtful and committed finalist, ready to use her athletic success to speak out on social issues, like gun violence in the United States, which she did after her semi-final victory over Martina Trevisan on Thursday.
Just four years ago, they both competed in the French Open women’s tournament, with Gauff winning the title and Swiatek losing in the semi-finals. But Swiatek, Gauff’s eldest by nearly three years, has since taken center stage on the women’s stage with her aggressive style, powerful skill set and detail-oriented approach to training.
She is one of the first tennis players to travel with full-time performance psychologist, Daria Abramowicz, and although she finished in the top 10 last year, she changed coaches during the season. dead, hiring Tomasz Wiktorowski, who worked as a television. analyst in Poland after many years coaching retired Polish star Agnieszka Radwanska. Swiatek had ended the 2021 season in tears, crying on the court before the end of his round robin match at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico. She said her “battery” was too weak to control her emotions at the time, but she decided she needed a change.
“When I came to the team in December, I said, ‘OK, let’s start with the strengths, not the weaknesses,” Wiktorowski said. “It was really important to me that she focused on what she was doing well, not just what she needed to improve.”
Her new team clicked fast, and they haven’t lost since February, compiling a 42-3 record in 2022 and winning titles in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and now Paris, where they broke through in 2020, winning his first major title without dropping a set.
This French Open was played in the fall after being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was played without spectators, and Swiatek’s thunderous shots echoed around the nearly empty Chatrier court in the closing rounds. But it has been a much more festive edition, with crowds making up for lost sporting events and filling the grounds and courts of Roland Garros from the start.
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