Iga Swiatek: Next Polish superstar?

Keizer

Keizer

Hall of Fame
Have been keeping an eye on her results for a while now, but haven't seen a thread up yet. I'm not ready to anoint her a future grand slam winner, but I really like her form, especially on the forehand. She had a great comeback against Wozniacki in Montreal yesterday, so I thought this was as good a time as any to see if any of you hardcore WTA fans have been keeping up with her career.

Thoughts?
 
Keizer said:
Have been keeping an eye on her results for a while now, but haven't seen a thread up yet. I'm not ready to anoint her a future grand slam winner, but I really like her form, especially on the forehand. She had a great comeback against Wozniacki in Montreal yesterday, so I thought this was as good a time as any to see if any of you hardcore WTA fans have been keeping up with her career.

Thoughts?
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Osaka tonight in Toronto. Will be a good test of where she is. Woz has been in neutral (14-11) for much of this year, which can happen when scheduling a wedding in the middle of a season.
 
stringertom said:
Osaka tonight in Toronto. Will be a good test of where she is. Woz has been in neutral (14-11) for much of this year, which can happen when scheduling a wedding in the middle of a season.
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Agreed, and with Woz being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, I don't regard beating her as a good litmus test for talent as I once did.

Let's see how she fares against Osaka. I've noticed that she can be error prone, which definitely comes with going for her shots when she can. She was absolutely crushed by Halep at RG in part because of this.
 
Keizer said:
Agreed, and with Woz being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, I don't regard beating her as a good litmus test for talent as I once did.

Let's see how she fares against Osaka. I've noticed that she can be error prone, which definitely comes with going for her shots when she can. She was absolutely crushed by Halep at RG in part because of this.
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4-4, one break each; crushing Osaka on second serve points from the slam champion.
 
Next implies there was was at least one before. :unsure:

Fibak is about the best I can think of. He was a very solid player but not a superstar.
 
Tshooter said:
Next implies there was was at least one before. :unsure:

Fibak is about the best I can think of. He was a very solid player but not a superstar.
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Angelique Kerber is of Polish descent (both parents). The Radwanska sisters, esp Agnie, should qualify as superstars. And how about Jerzy Janowicz as a minor superstar?

Other Polish Superstars include Nicolaus Copernicus, Fryderyk Chopin, Pope John Paul II, Marie Curie, Roman Polański. Helena Rubinstein, Arthur Rubinstein (piano) and Joanna Krupa
 
Keizer said:
(A) Radwanska was the one I had in mind when I wrote the title. Even if she didn't win any GS, she was still a very exciting player.
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She was a very good player. I don't think she was ever at the superstar level. You have to win Majors for that, IMO. Obviously I'm not talking about fan devotion -- for all I know back home she's as big as Elvis -- but strictly tennis results.
 
Haven't seen her hit a ball but I hope so. Cool name. Anyone with a surname suffix -tek is alright by me.
 
Tshooter said:
She was a very good player. I don't think she was ever at the superstar level. You have to win Majors for that, IMO. Obviously I'm not talking about fan devotion -- for all I know back home she's as big as Elvis -- but strictly tennis results.
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Fair enough. Honestly, I put her in a similar category to the likes of Nalbandian and Rios -- she had an obvious aesthetic appeal to her game but was never able to put it all together on the biggest of stages.

In any case, I thought Swiatek played a good match against Osaka yesterday. She's not Anisimova level yet, but definitely is #2 on my list of WTA players emerging from that post 2000 group.

EDIT: Can't forget Andreescu, so perhaps #3 rather than #2.
 
Tshooter said:
She was a very good player. I don't think she was ever at the superstar level. You have to win Majors for that, IMO. Obviously I'm not talking about fan devotion -- for all I know back home she's as big as Elvis -- but strictly tennis results.
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Certainly a superstar in Poland. Not only for being a WTA top 5 singles player (peaked at #2) and top 20 dbls player, but also for her modeling and considerable charity work (with sister, Urszula). Also, Dancing With the Stars. Fed Cup player for Poland with a 42-11 record. And won the Hopman Cup in 2015.

Very well liked outside of Poland as well in the tennis community. Often regarded as the female Fabrice Santoro for her entertaining & creative shotmaking. She was the voted the WTA Fan Favorite a total of 6 times during her career.

According to Forbes in 2012 she was the ninth highest-earning female athlete (not just tennis player) in the world. In prize money alone, she won $27.7million USD. That put her #7 for all time in 2016.

Only made it to a slam final once at Wimbledon but she garnered a very respectable 22 WTA titles. 6 of those were PM/P5. Also won the WTA Tour Finals in 2015. Very enviable tennis career for one who never grabbed a slam title.
 
Tshooter said:
She was a very good player. I don't think she was ever at the superstar level. You have to win Majors for that, IMO. Obviously I'm not talking about fan devotion -- for all I know back home she's as big as Elvis -- but strictly tennis results.
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Anna Kournikova comes to mind as a superstar of yesteryear. She posted some top 10 wins and managed to make it into the top 10 herself for singles. But she didn't win any singles titles, much less majors, at all.

However she was ranked number one doubles for a while and managed to garner 15 or 16 doubles titles. I think 9 or 10 of those were with Martina Hingis as her partner... the Spice Girls of tennis as they were often called.
 
I was just watching a bit of the match between Iga and Caroline Wozniacki and heard it mentioned that both of Caro's parental units hail from Poland. Her mom, Anna, played for the Polish National Volleyball team. And her dad/coach, Piotr, played pro football/soccer in Poland. Piotr and Anna move to Denmark when he signed to play for a Danish football team.

Caro speaks Danish, Polish, English, French and other languages. Don't know if Iga speaks languages other than Polish and English. But she has indicated that she is not too crazy about Spanish (in school). She has said that she does like Math(s), Pink Floyd, Santana, AC/DC and Coldplay.
 
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I don't really think you need to win slams to be a superstar in the WTA. The fact that Bouchard still gets any attention is evidence of that, to me at least.
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
Here is one indication:

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2019...top-10-highest-earning-female-athletes/84150/
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hm?this is just an indicator that there are a lot of WTA players that are on a similar level,like their opponents. we are talking about super-talent here.

super talent is only Serena and maybe Osaka and few others..we can put Halep in because of her will and work ethics..let the numbers do the talking--i dont believe anymore until i dont see the numbers. the WTA is a joke. we all know that

earnings have nothing to do with super talent.if there would be only low level players they would earn similar amounts.
 
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SystemicAnomaly said:
Anna Kournikova comes to mind as a superstar of yesteryear. She posted some top 10 wins and managed to make it into the top 10 herself for singles. But she didn't win any singles titles, much less majors, at all.

However she was ranked number one doubles for a while and managed to garner 15 or 16 doubles titles. I think 9 or 10 of those were with Martina Hingis as her partner... the Spice Girls of tennis as they were often called.
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You’re using the term to mean popularity, name recognition, sponsor desirability or some similar measure(s), I guess. I was initially assuming the term to have some connection with superstar results.

Kournikova I first saw play when she was a junior. She was a very, very good junior player and she was a good pro too in both singles and doubles but her tennis skills sometimes are dismissed or overshadowed.
 
Swiatek vs Garcia scheduled for 1:45 eastern today.

This will definitely be a tough test in itself, but a potential second round matchup with Kerber awaits her should she get past Garcia and Kerber past Kontaveit, who is a tricky first round opponent.
 
Tshooter said:
You’re using the term to mean popularity, name recognition, sponsor desirability or some similar measure(s), I guess. I was initially assuming the term to have some connection with superstar results.

Kournikova I first saw play when she was a junior. She was a very, very good junior player and she was a good pro too in both singles and doubles but her tennis skills sometimes are dismissed or overshadowed.
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Anna K's tennis skills were top notch. It was more the mental side of her game that was not fully developed. She had a decent number of wins in singles over top 10 players and would often lose in the QF or SF round. She made it to a number of finals but finished a runner-up. Three of those finals were Tier 1 events -- Miami, Moscow and Hilton Head. In the latter two, she lost to Martina Hingis in the finals. At Miami (1998) she lost to Venus Williams in the finals after taking the 1st set. In reaching that final, Anna K, seeded (23), dispatched number of the top seeds: Monica Seles (5), Conchita Martinez (9), Lindsay Davenport (2), and Arantxa SV (8). Very impressive run for the rising star.

I recall hearing of her when she was a skinny pre-teen junior. Even at 12 and 13, analysts had predicted she would reach #1 and win slams events. She ended up with a career high of #8 in singles (#1 in doubles) and a SF finish as her best result in slam singles. I managed to catch her a couple of times when she played at Stanford. She lost to Venus both times (QF and SF rounds). Don't believe that she ever did beat Venus during her career. In 2002, I saw an unseeded Anna easily dispatching one of the top seeds in the 1st round. The crowd found it hard to believe that some who played that well had not won a singles title. That was the year she lost to Venus in the QF.
 
Keizer said:
Swiatek vs Garcia scheduled for 1:45 eastern today.

This will definitely be a tough test in itself, but a potential second round matchup with Kerber awaits her should she get past Garcia and Kerber past Kontaveit, who is a tricky first round opponent.
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Qualifier, Iga, with an impressive win over Caro Garcia in R64 in main draw. Good luck to her in the next round.
 
Lost in straights to Kontaveit after serving for the second set. Some positives, but needs to better keep the ball within the lines in important points.
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
Angelique Kerber is of Polish descent (both parents). The Radwanska sisters, esp Agnie, should qualify as superstars. And how about Jerzy Janowicz as a minor superstar?

Other Polish Superstars include Nicolaus Copernicus, Fryderyk Chopin, Pope John Paul II, Marie Curie, Roman Polański. Helena Rubinstein, Arthur Rubinstein (piano) and Joanna Krupa
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You forgot Stanisław Lem.
 
Sir Weed said:
You forgot Stanisław Lem.
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Didn't exactly forget him. Was not even aware of Lem's existence or his accomplishments. Thinking about checking out the film, The Congress. Would you recommend it or something else as a starting point? (My eyes aren't good enough to read anything of a significant length).
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
Didn't exactly forget him. Was not even aware of Lem's existence or his accomplishments. Thinking about checking out the film, The Congress. Would you recommend it or something else as a starting point? (My eyes aren't good enough to read anything of a significant length).
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I've only read the book which this film is based upon and wasn't even aware of its existence so thanks for that.

Two films based on "Solaris":

en.m.wikipedia.org

Solaris (1972 film) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
en.m.wikipedia.org

Solaris (2002 film) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Both are very slow moving and you need patience - especially for Tarkovsky's version.

Lem wasn't fond of any film version.

...to my best knowledge, the book was not dedicated to erotic problems of people in outer space... As Solaris' author I shall allow myself to repeat that I only wanted to create a vision of a human encounter with something that certainly exists, in a mighty manner perhaps, but cannot be reduced to human concepts, ideas or images. This is why the book was entitled "Solaris" and not "Love in Outer Space".”
— Stanislaw Lem, The Solaris Station (December 8, 2002)
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
Angelique Kerber is of Polish descent (both parents). The Radwanska sisters, esp Agnie, should qualify as superstars. And how about Jerzy Janowicz as a minor superstar?

Other Polish Superstars include Nicolaus Copernicus, Fryderyk Chopin, Pope John Paul II, Marie Curie, Roman Polański. Helena Rubinstein, Arthur Rubinstein (piano) and Joanna Krupa
Click to expand...

Caroline Wozniacki is polish if we take Kerber into account.
 
Wow, I forgot about this thread, but I've been keeping track of Iga's results. Honestly, she has made great strides. The forehand is as good as ever and seems super heavy, with great shape and the ability to change directions. But the revelation has been the improvement on the backhand side. It's a legitimate weapon now and she's able to generate some serious angles with the stroke.

Serve is the biggest weakness imo. But it looks very similar to Wawrinka's, mechanically. Feel like she could learn a thing or two by taking a look at his serve (notably the lower/more predictable ball toss).

Onward and upward for RG, though. I think she will beat Podoroska and honestly think she can beat either of Kvitova/Kenin. I'd love to see her take out Kenin if that matchup manifests itself -- nothing better than a good shotmaker breaking down good defense!
 
Well, that was easy - she opened the bakery in the end too.

Needs to work on the backhand volley. But other than that, wow, what a shotmaker. Best I've seen since.... I don't even know!
 
Keizer said:
Have been keeping an eye on her results for a while now, but haven't seen a thread up yet. I'm not ready to anoint her a future grand slam winner, but I really like her form, especially on the forehand. She had a great comeback against Wozniacki in Montreal yesterday, so I thought this was as good a time as any to see if any of you hardcore WTA fans have been keeping up with her career.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
was there ever a polish tennis star ?????? LOL. if she does win , she would be the first one
 
She has effective & convincing results but no one stroke that looks particularly overpowering. Obviously her competition would say otherwise.
What am I missing?
is clay her best surface?
can she beat Barty, Osaka, or Williams the same way? She lost in straights to Azarenka at the USO.
 
a10best said:
She has effective & convincing results but no one stroke that looks particularly overpowering. Obviously her competition would say otherwise.
What am I missing?
is clay her best surface?
can she beat Barty, Osaka, or Williams the same way? She lost in straights to Azarenka at the USO.
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I think of her as the opposite. That forehand is already a top 5 forehand when on fire - it just can do so many things (depth, pace, shape, angles) and is very difficult to pick up because of her short backswing. She has similar strengths on the backhand side, albeit to a lesser degree. Her biggest problem is unforced errors.
 
James P said:
Radwanska reached a GS final and had i think 20 career titles or so. Iga is definitely looking to surpass her, though.
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oh yea that boring girl... Thank goodness this new girl Iga is more exciting and hits big. she's got several slams in her unlike aga who was so weak that got blown away so many times by power players
 
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