{"id":28583,"date":"2025-04-14T17:30:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T17:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/second-serve-can-iga-swiatek-emulate-carlos-alcaraz-to-start-clay-season\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T17:30:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T17:30:26","slug":"second-serve-can-iga-swiatek-emulate-carlos-alcaraz-to-start-clay-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/second-serve-can-iga-swiatek-emulate-carlos-alcaraz-to-start-clay-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Serve: Can Iga Swiatek emulate Carlos Alcaraz to start clay season?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Iga Swiatek is set for a mammoth few months.<\/b><\/p>\n

The world number two is defending 4,195 points during the clay-court season after her astonishing 2024, which saw her win every tournament on the surface bar the Stuttgart Open. Even then, she reached the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Poland’s Swiatek won both WTA 1,000 titles in Madrid and Italy, before picking up another 2,000 points from defending her French Open title.<\/p>\n

Simply put, she’s defending 54% of her 7,276 points over the next six weeks – and world number three Jessica Pegula, breathing down her neck, is defending none.<\/p>\n

Clay is Swiatek’s best surface, the slower conditions giving her more time on her pacey forehand, backed up by her superb movement around the court.<\/p>\n

But it’s been a tricky year for Swiatek. She lost in the Australian Open semi-finals from match point up, was stunned at the Miami Open<\/a> by Filipina teenager Alexandra Eala and has cut a stressed, irritable figure on court.<\/p>\n

Swiatek has also had to deal with an upsetting incident off the court, being verbally abused<\/a> by an “aggressive and taunting fan” in Miami.<\/p>\n

A return to her favoured clay might provide a reset for her – as Carlos Alcaraz has shown.<\/p>\n

Like Swiatek, Alcaraz is the defending French Open champion. He too has had a mixed start to the year. He too had a surprise loss in Miami and, like Swiatek, has a tendency to be overly self-critical.<\/p>\n

The new Monte Carlo champion did not have it all his own way on his run to the title. His quarter-final against Arthur Fils was a tricky, tight encounter, and the Spaniard was second-best in the early stages of the final against Lorenzo Musetti.<\/p>\n

But Alcaraz found a way through and, ultimately, a way to win. That is something Swiatek can emulate this week in Stuttgart and beyond.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Iga Swiatek is set for a mammoth few months. The world number two is defending 4,195 points during the clay-court season after her astonishing 2024, which saw her win every tournament on the surface bar the Stuttgart Open. Even then, she reached the semi-finals. Poland’s Swiatek won both WTA 1,000 titles in Madrid and Italy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28585,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28583\/revisions\/28585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}