Don’t push the horses!

Katja // who watches tennis anyway? Sharapova’s advocate Vondrousova second Slam truther house Greyjoy enjoyer

[prahaopen]

cr. Jimmie48 Photography // extractions from Wikipedia and Maling Shaolin Kung Fu Academy website

[topspinforehand]

I was thinking about the United Cup and how it was such a clear example of how Iga is currently performing with negative pressure and how the weight of expectation is affecting her. Whilst it is considered a competitive tournament and there is a sense of pride performing for your country, she looks like she is absorbs it all and rather than processing it into positive pressure to motivate her to do well and play her tennis, it causes her to have these mid-match crash outs. Everything feels so similar to her Olympics performance where it looked like everything got to her because the expectation became so big (a gold medal, playing on Chatrier, people assuming she was a shoe-in to win it). And then you compare it to Wimbledon where expectations were so low and whilst there was pressure, she processed it so well because of those low expectations.

I really hope she can pull through this.

absolutely, it used to be she would only really be affected by the pressure to such an extent when she was playing for poland. (her crying at the tokyo olympics is seared in my mind.) and now it's everywhere there's any expectation. wimbledon was her last refuge from that because of her relatively weaker results but this year she's the defending champion.

match play and experience playing through it clearly aren't helping her. i half-think something could click if she got one good win but i'm not sure how she's supposed to get that anytime soon when she's so prone to crumbling. i really hope she's at least working through it with an external psychologist/psychiatrist and possibly exploring medical interventions. and talking to rafa about his experiences with psychiatry would imo be one of the most useful conversations she could have.

having said that, while i think mentality is very much the main factor, having a serve that can consistently perform on a level commensurate with the other top players would do a lot to alleviate that pressure. imo she should be winning a lot more with her current game than she does, but there is more of a disparity than in years past between the level she probably expects from herself and the level she's actually capable of producing. technical and tactical changes made under wim and arguably tomasz, and external factors like the terrible ball production and increasingly unfavourable court and weather conditions have deteriorated her game and left her unmoored in terms of her tennis identity.

i think roig can definitely help with some of that, but she needs to add a biomechanic specialist to her team and replace daria with someone to actually help her mentally.

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People who say the wind killed Aryna’s game clearly haven’t watched the match

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No but what if I’m being dead serious when I say Iga’s crisis is probably one of the main reasons why Aryna’s game on clay grew this rusty

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And how much pressure there is on Aryna who’s been a dominant no.1 with GS titles only on hard court slams. There will be even more at this point if and think it’s unlikely that she just stands up and wins Wimbledon all of a sudden unfortunately

[cloudycluster]

aryna 😭💔

[bagels-and-breadsticks]

Imagine you’re the first person to beat Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros in four years and you can’t quite believe it to the extent that you’re photographed looking like you’re semi mourning a rival you never quite got to have and you think that finally there’s no one standing in your way to getting that natural surface slam after #her but you lose in the final anyway and cause an unsportsmanlike scandal by saying that if only she had played the final instead of you that she would have lifted the trophy instead…

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Honestly I saw that coming but like this…

[janniksins]

MARTA KOSTYUK | 2026 Roland Garros Quarterfinal def. Elina Svitolina 6-3 2-6 6-2

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Iga’s RG 2025 🤝 Aryna’s RG 2026

[servesociety]

okay….

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Aryna girl you NEED to LOCK IN

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Are you kidding me

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“Why the fuck did you make this drop shot in the first place??” “I’m not talking to you I’m talking to myself🙄🙄” lmaooo

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Why is Aryna stuck on her feet like this, she had a much lighter footwork on hard courts and I’m even more concerned about the fact that she STILL hasn’t adapted fully to clay

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Bruh I was just about to point a finger and laugh before it turned into a deuce hell

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Aryna dear let’s just not please