Francisco Roig

Didn't really wanna talk to the press.

I can understand that, but we're gonna look at whether or not the coaching situation with Francisco Roig has worked out.

We're gonna have a little chat about rebuilding a player's confidence when they've gone from the absolute pinnacle where she was.

She was the queen of women's tennis.

That wouldn't happen to her when she was the very best in the world, and unfortunately, the older we get, we get something called scar tissue, and our mind gets away, and sometimes we don't find a way to stop this when momentum shifts.

So when you're up 5-0 and you lose seven games in a row, you're not being able to either put your opponent off, find a way to lift your game, you know, use your coaching team to find a way to work it out.

You know, she went with Francisco Roig.

They didn't get off to the best start when the relationship started.

two people we really focus on, I think, with Igor Svantec, and the team is wider.

There is Francisco Roig, who she has been delighted to work with because of the Rafa connection, which means a huge amount to her as a massive, massive Rafa fan.

And she has been talking very encouragingly about that partnership, which has only been going for about six months.

And the other side of things is Daria Abramovic, who is her sports psychologist and mental coach.

I'm just hoping for her that whatever she does, whoever she works with, that it comes from her own decisions.

Just go into that for us again, Dani, that point on the Spanish influence and their ideology in tennis, because I think that's fascinating.

She's brought in Francisco Roig, who famously used to work with Rafa Nadal, had that brief period with Emma Raducani.

But from your experience, having trained in Spain and having a Spanish coach previously, what is it about their mentality that, I guess, from what you're trying to say there, separates what is on court versus life away from it?

She's, she's always been in that kind of awkward, tricky category, but you always expect the best players to actually beat her, and Świątek generally has handled her pretty well.

But wow, like, if we're talking about this new version of Iga Świątek under Francisco Roig, this was it.

There was absolutely zero what we call ball bashing, you know, where she just hits out and hits out, and keeps going for her shots.

There was almost, there was almost too much patience for Iga Świątek.

As a result, recent Toronto champion Świątek and two-time US Open winner Osaka are big favorites to get to the quarter-finals, setting up a blockbuster match-up.

Prior to Toronto, it had been a tough 12 months or so for Świątek, but under new coach Francisco Roig, her game seems to be slowly getting back on track.

She looks more controlled and measured from the back of the court, and that should make the 2022 champion too good for Osaka.

Kostyuk reaching three Grand Slam semi-finals in a row would be a fantastic achievement, but it still doesn't feel like she is quite ready to reach a final.

You would've watched a lot of her matches, I mean, a- and also in Cincy as well.

Do you feel like she's got some of her mojo back, that she's finally managed to get it to click with Francisco Roig and just feels more confident on court? Do you think she's going to be alongside maybe someone like Gauff, a real contender, should be up there a- as a real contender for the title?

Yeah.

I, I think ...

Yep.

And some of it with, like Iga Swiatek in specific was very, uh, her and Francisco Roig went through, I saw them go through an hour and a half of, of drills, legitimate drills.

Um, her with her hitting partner working on specific things.

Yeah.

You know, she doesn't have to go for too much, you know? Her ground strokes, her rally balls are so good that you don't need to play with such high risk.

So I think Francisco Roig and the team have done a good job getting her into a really good place.

She was playing really smart tennis-

Mm-hmm

It, it's been a strange year for her.

It didn't really work out with Francisco Roig, her coach, to start with, but it seems like something's happened, whether she's got her mojo back or whatever.

She lost to Jess Pegula the other night in the semifinal, but she was right in that match.

And while she's not quite at her absolute best, I think she's a real contender.

Um, and this was a really important win for her.

Uh, this was a really important win for her, her coach, um, Francisco Roig, who I think had not had good results in their partnership so far these first few months.

Um, and so for her to get back...

And I also was really struck by how she, how she talked on court after, after the win, both in her, uh, uh, on her interview with, with Sportsnet, the Canadian host broadcaster, then also with, uh, um, uh, the trophy ceremony, sort of calling out the haters.

I mean, even when, even when she, even when she was struggling during the clay court season last year, she didn't have a loss like that at Roland Garros.

Um, her Wimbledon, she, her Wimbledon title defense ended in a whimper.

She's obviously spoke so much about how much she's enjoying working with, um, Francisco Roig and how- She feels she's found a coach who kind of, you know, understands her, is on her, you know, is, is giving her the right ideas, what she, kind of getting her to play, you know, approach tennis the way she wants to approach the sport, but her results weren't reflecting that.

I, I did find it interesting that, um, she-- Like, like she said that one factor was perhaps that, you know, that they'd started in the period, the, the part of the season, right? They started in the clay court season where she'd been so dominant, and for that reason, the pressure was incredibly high.