Just over a year ago, Iga Swiatek was fresh from a confounding loss. Unseeded Czech teenager Linda Noskova had ended Swiatek’s bid for a first Australian Open title in the third round, with the big-hitting 19-year-old coming from a set down to overpower the then-world No. 1.
Swiatek knew her opponent had played brilliantly, but she was confused by her own form. She had been playing well ahead of the first major of 2024, but then “saw my tennis being worse and worse every day,” she said in an interview from her home in Warsaw a fortnight ago.
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The 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss was not the only such defeat of 2024,
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