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Seoul F: [1] Swiatek def. [2] Alexandrova 1-6 7-6(3) 7-5

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15K views 209 replies 103 participants last post by  mauegd  
#1 ·
The carbs from that first set breadstick must've energised Iga, as she recovers to win both a close match and the Seoul title!
 
#9 ·
Iga was extremely far from her best but she showed a lot of character in this one. I know it's just a WTA500 but she fought for this one like it was a slam. Title 25 in the city her dad competed in the Olympics in, couldn't be more fitting. The serve was a huge problem today though, hopefully she fixes it for Beijing.

Alexandrova more than played her part today. Played very well, pushed Iga to the very end and did not really let up mentally apart from a few points here and there, which unfortunately was enough for her to lose this one. Still a step closer to top 10, hopefully she makes it there.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Third title for Iga this year, tied with Sabalenka. She really needed this title. And I think it was good for Iga to win a final again where she was really pushed (the 2 others being the FO 2023 Final and the Madrid 2024 Final)

Her and Aryna have been clearly the best players of the year.

She has clearly a shot at Beijing with Aryna out.

For someone who is having a " bad " year, lot of people would love to win in a single a GS, a WTA 1000 and a WTA 500. Of course, it's not the incredible heighs of 2022 (8 titles) or 2023 (6 titles), but so far Iga salvaged her season and it's not over.

Still don't think Iga will reclaim the #1 at the end of the year (really need to win Beijing and the YEC if possible undefeated) and I think Sabalenka to be fair deserved more but she will have a chance the next year.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Wow. Just wow. I am very glad Iga won this title, and I honestly do not know how she did it. She hit 9 double faults to just two aces, and her first serve percentage was in the low 50s (just 48% in Set 3). A testament to her mettle as a champion.

You have to feel for Alexandrova, but she was honestly playing about 10x better than she has this entire tournament. Her peak level is really quite scary, painting lines on serve and return.

Iga has now won a final from a set down, which she has never done before in her WTA career. This makes title number 25 of just 30 finals, all at the age of 24. I am glad she has a third title this year, and hopefully she can ride this confidence into Beijing and Wuhan.
 
#209 ·
Iga has now won a final from a set down, which she has never done before in her WTA career.
I had to look that up, because that seems unbelievable, but here's the data :
She's lost 2 finals in straight sets, and 3 in 3 sets, in all finals but one, (Ostrava 2022 vs Babs) she did so after losing the first set.
She's won 21 (!) finals in straight sets. 3 finals in 3 from 1 set up and just 1 final from 1 set up.

That's a finals set win-loss record of 53-14 (79.1%), assuming each set is independent (the formula being 3x^2-2x^3), she'd be expected to win 88.7% of her matches, or about 27 of them, in other words, she's been underperforming compared to my naive hypothesis, so when she was winning, she was usually winning by a lot.

By comparison, Serena was as follows :
48 straight set wins, 24 3-set wins, 16 straight set losses, 7 3-set losses and 3 walkovers/retirements (not counted). For an overall win-loss of 151-70 in her sets (68.3%), and an expected 76.3% win-loss, she actually performed as predicted 72/95, or 75.8%), which suggests a sample size issue for Iga.

TL:DR Iga is winning more of her finals than Serena.
 
#13 ·
It wasn't Iga's best day, but she pushed through this final on sheer willpower alone. There were parts where she was fighting with herself more than with Alexandrova.
 
#20 ·
What did Iga say to Wim where he went "EXACTLY EXACTLY!"
 
#25 ·
I'm very disappointed.
Goodbye.
 
#39 · (Edited)
Which other player has such a insane % of W-L in finals ?

Alcaraz has 23W-7L in finals too. And guess what ? He has too 6 GS, he has won all the GS except... the AO like Iga

I would say Iga and Aryna are a little like Alcaraz and Sinner. Iga like Carlos has a higher peak level and Aryna like Jannik have a higher base level (and Jannik has 4 GS like Aryna)

And like Carlos, Iga improved her serve (it was quite bad for this final however)

It's funny, Sabalenka has played more finals than Iga as she is older (39 against 30) but she has less titles...