Todd Woodbridge says he is hoping Iga Swiatek worked on her slice backhand in the offseason as the former doubles world No. 1 believes it is the key to the world No. 2 achieving success at the Australian Open.
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Although the Pole has already won five Grand Slams by the age of 23, she hasn't had that much success at Melbourne Park so far in her career.
Apart from a semifinal outing in 2022, it has mostly been early exits for Swiatek at the Australian Open - three times lost in the round-of-16 and also had second and third-round defeats.
But recently, the 23-year-old made a big change and replaced Tomasz Wiktorowski with Naomi Osaka's former long-time coach Wim Fissette.
Shortly after their partnership was revealed, the Belgian coach - under whose guidance Osaka won the Australian Open and US Open - underlined one of his primary goals would be making the Pole a better player on faster surfaces.
Woodbridge: Hopefully Swiatek and Fissette have been working on her backhand slice
"There's a new coaching team [now including Wim Fissette], and hopefully in the off-season they've been running over to the backhand corner and hitting some slice backhands a defensive shot to get back into play, the Australian tennis legend said The AO Show Weekly.
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"[Its] one shot required for her to go another level here, and that's to get a defensive ball, to get it back into play, and get back neutral into the court.
"If she can have been working on that, I promise you you'll see a different look from Iga. It will allow her to use her forehand better, and set things up.
And she doesn't have that shot. Doesn't use it. That's all.
Also, Woodbridge - who won 16 Grand Slams in men's doubles and six more in mixed doubles - also added that a stronger backhand would also allow Swiatek to "use her forehand way better."
Once the former world No. 1 kicks off her 2025 season, only then we will be able to see if she made any changes to her game.
