Iga Swiatek is a tougher opponent to play against than Serena Williams, according to two-time Grand Slam finalist Karolina Pliskova. Swiatek has been the dominant force in women’s tennis over the last few years but has struggled at her last two tournaments.
The Pole was dumped out of the Olympics by Qinwen Zheng but secured her country’s first tennis medal with victory in the bronze medal match. She travelled to the Cincinnati Open with high hopes of claiming the top prize but was beaten in the semi-finals by Aryna Sabalenka.
Regardless of her stuttering form at recent events, Pliskova still believes that Swiatek is one of the toughest opponents in the history of women’s tennis. Speaking on the No Challenges Remaining podcast, she argued that Swiatek is even harder to play against than Williams.
“Serena didn’t like players which are playing fast and serving well, so I felt like she was struggling a little bit with my game,” said Pliskova, who was the runner-up at the US Open in 2016 before reaching the Wimbledon final in 2021.
“And even the matches which I lost to her, I felt like it was even, you know, she would never kind of like guilt me like she did some players. Then once of course like I beat her, I always had the belief that, okay, I can beat her.
“To play against Iga Swiatek is much harder because she doesn’t give you anything. With Serena, in the end her game was much more aggressive or like [Maria] Sharapova who I played. But they would at least give you light points or make some mistakes.
“I feel like Iga Swiatek is not so aggressive but she really gives you nothing and she doesn’t even have one dip where she would have like one bad game, at least in the matches where I played her.
“Especially on clay, she moves so well. I felt like with Serena, if you can get her on the move you could have some light points.”
It remains to be see if Swiatek will be able to justify Pliskova’s praise even further by winning the US Open, which gets underway next week. She will be hoping to do the business ahead of Sabalenka, who will go into the tournament at Flushing Meadows as the favourite to claim the spoils.
