{"id":263521,"date":"2023-01-14T20:47:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T21:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=263521"},"modified":"2023-01-15T04:58:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T04:58:07","slug":"vulnerable-aus-open-favourites-downfall-nailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=263521","title":{"rendered":"'Vulnerable' Aus Open favourite's downfall nailed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iga Swiatek<\/a> may be the world's best in women's tennis, but Australian great Wally Masur<\/a> reckons the pride of Poland is vulnerable.<\/p>\n

The No.1 rose to the top spot after Ash Barty's<\/a> sudden retirement in 2022 following her Australian Open<\/a> triumph.<\/p>\n

What followed was a dominant spell for Swiatek that saw her go on a 37-match winning streak and remain at the top of the pile for more than 40 weeks.<\/p>\n

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Swiatek is just the fourth woman to spend more than 40 consecutive weeks at the top in their first stint, after Steffi Graf (186 weeks), Martina Hingis (80) and Serena Williams (57).<\/p>\n

\"Iga<\/p>\n

Last year's streak included grand slam victories at Roland-Garros and the US Open in a season where she also claimed the Qatar Open, Indian Wells, Miami Open and Italian Open.<\/p>\n

It isn't all positive, though, according to Masur, who remains "not entirely convinced" by Swiatek heading into the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/strong>"Iga Swiatek on clay is by far and away the best player," said Masur on \ufeffStan Sport's Grand Slam Daily<\/em>\ufeff.<\/p>\n

\"World<\/p>\n

"A brilliant mover and she certainly translates that movement onto the hard court. She's really hard to hurt. The more you push her wide in the court the more she'll sting you. She's a phenomenal mover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"But at the US Open, for me, watching \u2013 she's got a very extreme grip on the forehand. It was precarious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"But there was a whole lot of women that couldn't quite find their best tennis against her to take advantage, so Iga won the US Open, but I'm not convinced hard court is necessarily her surface.<\/p>\n

"Recently, at the United Cup, she lost to Jess Pegula, who is a great hard-courter. Two and two (6-2, 6-2). Absolutely was troubled by the trajectory and the pace on the hard courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Iga<\/p>\n

"Now, she'll be better at the Australian Open, but I think she's vulnerable. I think Iga Swiatek is vulnerable. My favourite, but vulnerable."<\/p>\n

The recently crowned Polish Sports Personality of the Year heads into the Australian Open as the bonafide favourite.<\/p>\n

Her preparation hasn't been plain sailing, having withdrawn from the Adelaide International with a right shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

The Australian Open will get underway on Monday.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iga Swiatek may be the world's best in women's tennis, but Australian great Wally Masur reckons the pride of Poland is vulnerable. The No.1 rose […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263526,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263521\/revisions\/263526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}