Why the Iga Swiatek-Jelena Ostapenko head to head is not like the other tennis pigeons

New York Times

17-02-2025

Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
This week, one of the strangest head-to-heads in tennis got stranger still; Amanda Anisimova and Joao Fonseca achieved tennis milestones; Diego Schwartzman retired from the sport and Chile's tennis federation challenged the ITF over the Zizou Bergs vs. Cristian Garin incident at the Davis Cup.
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One of the strangest head to heads in tennis got a little bit stranger last week. Jelena Ostapenko extended her record against the five-time Grand Slam champion and current world No. 2 Iga Swiatek to 5-0, with a 6-3, 6-1 win in the Qatar Open semifinals. In four of their five meetings, Ostapenko has been the lower-ranked player by a distance.
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It is the heaviest defeat Swiatek has suffered in any match since a 6-2, 6-0 defeat to the same player in 2019, at a grass-court event in Birmingham, England. Swiatek, 18 then, was a qualifier at the tournament and ranked No. 65.
This latest win for Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, was all the more extraordinary given that Swiatek was going for a fourth straight title in Doha. She hadn't lost there since 2020. Ostapenko, ranked no. 37 when the match took place, needed just 71 minutes to thrash her much higher-ranked opponent before somewhat inevitably losing the final in straight sets to the lower-ranked Amanda Anisimova.
This is not like most tennis pigeon matchups — 'pigeon' being tennis-speak for when one player becomes easy prey for the stronger predator. Swiatek should be nobody's pigeon, and she beat Elena Rybakina in the previous round in Doha, Ostapenko — her nightmare opponent — is the only active WTA player with a positive record against her. Swiatek's elite defense and heavy groundstrokes have allowed her to improve against other flat-hitting blasters, but on Friday Ostapenko found the lines time and time again. If there is a weak point, it's the Swiatek serve, which often ends up in Ostapenko's strike zone, but for nearly the entire match there was just nothing to be done.
Tennis is a sport of matchups, and there is no doubt that the uneven record between these two has gotten into both players' heads. Midway through the second set, Swiatek, normally so calm on court, smashed her racket at a change of ends. Ostapenko laughed to herself in response, in what felt like a microcosm of their rivalry: Ostapenko the antagonist gleeful, as Swiatek once again walked into the trap she had laid for her.
'I was pretty confident I would beat her, because we played a lot of matches and I know how to play against her. I just was more focusing on myself and knew what I have to do,' Ostapenko said in her on-court interview, adding later that she was pleased with how she read Swiatek's serve during the match.
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When The Athletic asked about her extraordinary record against Swiatek in an interview last year, Ostapenko grinned: 'That's my top secret. I'm not going to say anything.'
For Swiatek, the only positive is that the Latvian is rarely present at the sharp end of Grand Slams these days — only one of their five meetings has taken place at a major. Despite lots of improvements in other areas from this time last year, Swiatek is no closer to solving her Ostapenko conundrum.
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How to be a tennis pigeon: The worst matchups and how players prepare for them
Charlie Eccleshare
Chile's tennis federation lost its appeal to tennis authorities over its recent Davis Cup tie with Belgium, issuing a statement in which it decried the 'apathy and indifference' of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and said that Belgian player Zizou Bergs showed 'a lack of respect towards his opponent lacking the most basic sporting values'. A spokesperson for Bergs declined to comment; the ITF told The Athletic the appeal process was confidential.
The tie had ended acrimoniously when Bergs crashed into Cristian Garin at a changeover during their singles rubber, after breaking the Chilean's serve.
Garin went to the ground. Bergs got a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct. Chile's team physio assessed Garin. Then, with the area near his right eye swelling and, according to him, his head cloudy, Garin refused to play on. But the Davis Cup's neutral doctor cleared him to return to the court, so when he did not resume, the umpire issued a series of time violation penalties. Because it was 6-5 to Bergs in the deciding set, the game penalty Garin conceded lost him the match.
Chile's tennis federation argued that the umpire erred when he only issued Garin a warning, saying that an aggression like the one their player experienced, even when unintentional, requires an immediate default. The default rules do not ascribe any outcome or impact of an action when considering whether or not a player should be defaulted, nor do they consider intent — that the collision was accidental should not matter in the final decision.
Speaking in a news conference after the match, ITF match referee Carlos Ramos said: 'I consider it was a very unfortunate accident between two players — caused unfortunately by a player without any intention.'
Following Chile's appeal, ITF president David Haggerty sent a letter to Sergio Elias Aboid, president of the Chilean tennis federation. In the confidential letter, which The Athletic has reviewed, Haggerty writes: 'There is no 'mandate' in the code as to exactly what should happen in the unfortunate and unique circumstances that arose in this match. The referee applied the code in the manner he considered appropriate and whilst not everyone will agree with every decision reached by a Referee, the ITF does not consider that the referee acted outside of his powers. The Davis Cup regulations are clear that such decisions are reserved to the referee.'
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Haggerty also said the ITF code states a referee's decisions are final and cannot be overturned, so Chile had no grounds for appeal. Separately, the Chileans argued that the tournament doctor who examined Garin and decided he was fit to play did not ask the proper questions about his symptoms.
Haggerty responded: 'Although the independent doctor's opinion did not align with that of the Chilean team doctor, that does not mean that the opinion of the independent doctor was incorrect. The ITF has no reason to believe that the independent doctor did anything other than undertake an appropriate assessment of Mr Garin in order to reach an objective and informed view on whether or not he was fit to continue playing.
'Independent doctors are appointed to all Davis Cup ties in order to provide their opinions in circumstances such as these. It was entirely appropriate for the referee to rely upon the determination of the independent doctor in directing that play should resume.'
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'A shameful international incident': How Cristian Garin and Zizou Bergs created tennis farce
Matt Futterman
It's happened again: A big-hitting American woman touted as the next big thing doesn't conform to the expectations set for them, enters a lull, then storms back to win a big title.
Three weeks after Madison Keys' Australian Open triumph, Amanda Anisimova delivered the latest don't-forget-about-me performance, winning Doha for her first title at the 1,000 level — the one just below the Grand Slams. She beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 6-3 for her first title in three years, when she won the Melbourne Summer Set 2, which replaced the usual Australian Open tuneup tournaments during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Anisimova barely played in 2023, taking an extended break from tennis starting in the May to address some burnout and her mental health. She had described simply being at tournaments as 'unbearable' before beginning her hiatus. Returning to the tour in earnest last spring, she had her best result in Montreal in August, where she made the final before losing to Jessica Pegula.
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'Super-proud of myself,' she said in comments after the Doha win that the WTA Tour distributed. 'Just the way I was able to stay mentally tough in a lot of difficult matches against some amazing players.'
In the final against Ostapenko, Anisimova came on court aware she was going to have to find a way to go on the attack, easier said than done against the free-swinging Latvian, who had just dispatched tournament favorite Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. 'I knew I was going to step it up and play the most aggressive tennis of the week,' she said.
The title puts Anisimova into the world top 20 for the first time, meaning that as well as there being four Americans in the top 10, there are six in the top 20.
Matt Futterman
Before the latter stages of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires, Joao Fonseca's introduction to the tennis world had been all sparkle.
Crushed forehands, delivered with a liquid uncoiling of his relatively modest frame. Winners that scud through the court from all directions. The fervor of Brazilian fans, who took over the U.S. Open as he knocked out No. 9 seed Andrey Rublev before falling to Lorenzo Sonego, on a court harder to get into than the most exclusive nightclub in Rio de Janeiro. Whatever word comes to mind — aura, presence, stature, charisma — Fonseca, 18, exudes it.
In Argentina, he faced a different kind of challenge. In the third of three matches against players from the event's host nation, always a huge sporting rival to Brazil, he went down two match points to Mariano Navone in the quarterfinals. After saving one in a long rally, he rescued the second with a backhand lasered up the line.
Saving match point – Joao Fonseca style 😯@ArgentinaOpen pic.twitter.com/upiImxnR3D
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 14, 2025
He blocked out the noise of the crowd by playing to his usual rhythm.
After being broken twice — once when serving for the match — against Serbia's Laslo Djere in the semifinals, he won a third set he shouldn't have had to play 6-1. In the final, another home hope, Francisco Cerundolo, served for the title twice in the third set. But he was broken each time and it went to a deciding tiebreak.
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All match long, the crowd jeered and whistled to distraction between Fonseca's serves. It was the kind of barracking that had rattled world No. 2 Alexander Zverev into losing to Cerundolo from a set up earlier in the tournament. Fonseca however, the first man born in 2006 to reach an ATP Tour final, won the tiebreak 7-1.
There were plenty of winners from the teenager all week long, but his path to victory in Buenos Aires was paved with grit.
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The seven points that prove Joao Fonseca is set for tennis stardom
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Last week reminded tennis that nobody does goodbyes like Argentina.
A couple of months after Juan Martin del Potro's emotional farewell in Buenos Aires, one-time world No. 8 Diego Schwartzman said his farewell to the sport at the Argentina Open in the same city.
In his final match, in round two against Pedro Martinez, which came after a heroic opening win over Chile's Nicolas Jarry, Schwartzman wiped tears from his eyes as his opponent went to serve match point. The match paused briefly as the whole stadium chanted his name in appreciation of an extraordinary career.
A fitting finale 🥹
Pure goosebumps as the cathedral of Argentinian tennis hails 'Diegooo'@dieschwartzman | @ArgentinaOpen | #ArgOpen2025 pic.twitter.com/0Zf6QrD4wH
— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 13, 2025
Standing at just 5 feet 7 inches (170cm) in a sport of giants, Schwartzman was a natural underdog. He punched way above his weight, reaching the world's top 10 and making Rafael Nadal as uncomfortable as anyone else could manage at the French Open.
In 2018, Schwartzman briefly looked like he might do the unthinkable and beat Nadal there in Paris, when he led their quarterfinal by a set and 3-2 with a break of serve. Nadal came back to win after rain forced the match to be suspended until the next day, but it was a demonstration of the phenomenal power Schwartzman could generate despite his stature. His affectionate nickname, 'El Peque,' translates to 'Shorty.'
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Schwartzman went one better at Roland Garros two years later by reaching the semifinals, where Nadal beat him again. He qualified for the ATP Tour Finals, for the world's eight best players, that year, and also made the U.S. Open quarterfinals twice.
Only 32, Schwartzman started having physical issues in 2022. He recently got engaged and wants to start a family in retirement.
Reflecting on his career, Schwartzman told the ATP last week: 'While it has been a little bit sad watching tennis lately, knowing this moment was coming, it was in a good way. I have a lot of amazing memories to think about and achievements to celebrate. I had the opportunity to check off many dreams and do more than people thought was possible for me.
'I have a small body, but it gave the biggest players in our history bad moments.'
Tennis players seem to be getting taller and taller and more homogenized. An always-popular figure, Schwartzman will be much missed.
Charlie Eccleshare
Yep, Joao Fonseca hit some winners, didn't he?
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Joao Fonseca def. Francisco Cerundolo (5) 6-4, 7-6(1) to win the Argentina Open (250) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the Brazilian's first ATP Tour title.
🏆 Ugo Humbert (2) def. Hamad Medjedovic 7-6(4), 6-4 to win the Open 13 Provence (250) in Marseille, France. It is his second consecutive title at the tournament.
🏆 Miomir Kecmanovic (7) def. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (8) 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 to win the Delray Beach Open (250) in Delray Beach, Florida. It is his second ATP Tour title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Amanda Anisimova def. Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 6-3 to win the Qatar Open (1,000) in Doha, Qatar. It is the American's first WTA 1,000 title.
📈 Amanda Anisimova ascends 23 spots from No. 41 to No. 18 after her win in Doha. It is a new career high for the American.
📈 Joao Fonseca moves up 31 places from No. 99 to No. 68 after his win in Buenos Aires. It is a new career high for the Brazilian.
📈 Jelena Ostapenko gains 11 places after her run to the Doha final, returning to the seeded positions for Grand Slams by moving from No. 37 to No. 26.
📈 Hamad Medjedovic rises 23 places from No. 96 to No. 73 after his run to the Marseille final.
🎾 ATP
📍Doha, Qatar: Qatar Open (500) featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Alex De Minaur, Abdullah Shelbayh.
📍Rio de Janeiro: Rio Open (500) featuring Alexander Zverev, Joao Fonseca, Francisco Cerundolo, Yunchaokete Bu.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
🎾 WTA
📍Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Dubai Tennis Championships (1000) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel
Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men's and women's tours continue.