MASON, OH—“I’m always this kind of player who needs to see the proof,” Iga Swiatek said last week, when she was in the middle of her Cincinnati Open campaign. “If the serves are actually going to go in, I’ll be convinced.”
Swiatek was talking about the hopes and dreams that Wim Fissette, her coach, had for her serve when they began their partnership last fall. At first, his ambitions seemed a little far-fetched to her.
“When I started working with Wim, I didn’t believe that I can serve 185 [kilometers per hour] and 180 consistently. So I think he helped me with reaching this higher speed…I just kind of needed to believe it.”
There’s no way for Iga, or anyone else, to doubt her serving potential any longer. Especially not after her 7-5, 6-4 win over Jasmine Paolini in the final here on Monday evening. Time after time, often at the most opportune moments, Swiatek threw down serves in the 110- to 115-m.p.h. range. That’s right around the 185 k.p.h. mark that Fissette envisioned for her.
The result is that Swiatek has turned her career upside down in 2025. The decade’s greatest dirt-baller didn’t win anything during the clay swing, but since then she has turned around and claimed her first titles at two of the sport’s most important tournaments, Wimbledon, on grass, and Cincinnati, on quick hard courts. They’re two events that she may have doubted she would ever conquer. In the past, the slow-court-loving Swiatek couldn’t find her bearings on their slick surfaces.
After her performance on Monday, we may have to ask: Is the Queen of Clay turning into a big-serving fast-courter?
She hit eight aces and at least that many service winners against Paolini. Just as important was when she found them. Down 2-3 in the first set, she came up with two unreturnable serves to hold. Up 4-3, she fired two aces. And at 6-5, she closed the set with three service winners and an ace. There was more of the same in the second set. Serving at 4-3, in what turned out to be the most crucial game of the match, she fended off a break point with a service winner and held with an ace. And she ended the match in fitting fashion, with an ace out wide.