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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]What’s been especially cool is seeing Swiatek grow into the role, with a little skill development and a little tactical refinement. Everything still revolves around her baseline game, the heaviest topspin on tour. Her serve, never a particular strength of hers, has gotten a bit sharper. But her recent dominance has been all about a smothering return game. During this 16-match win streak, there were 13 matches where she won more than 50 percent of points on return; in four of those matches she won a terrifying 60 percent of return points. Going into any given set right now, the default expectation is that she’ll break serve, and unsurprisingly her last eight matches have closed in straight sets. She’s also adopted a more aggressive way of ending points, even though it required her to go against the grain of her tennis instincts.