Ostapenko holds the wood of Swiatek in theor WTA Tour meetings.
Swiatek has yet to beat Ostapenko in four meetings on tour and the Latvian sent her packing from the US Open despite going down a set.
“I think it’s quite difficult for her mentally to play against me because I won many times,” Ostapenko said in an interview with LSM.lv.
“She doesn’t like my style of tennis either. She likes to dictate the game more and she also tries to play aggressively. It is difficult for her in games against me – I try to play more aggressively. At the “US Open” I played against her, I lost the first set, but I continued to play my game anyway. I played aggressively and I think that’s how I won.”
Ostapenko says that her game hasn’t been so well suited to taking on players who are able to vary their play in match situations.
One such player is US Open champion Coco Gauff who handed out a bit of a thrashing to Ostapenko in the last eight in New York.
“She is a good player, still young. She plays much differently than Swiatek,” Ostapenko commented.
“She has a good serve, and plays well from the left, but when the score is equal, she goes more to the defence. Therefore, maybe against her, it is a bit more difficult. She runs very, very fast. Balls that many girls might not hit, she will hit, and sometimes they are very uncomfortable.”
Ostapenko believes that she has enjoyed a very good season even if she hasn’t received plaudits for her efforts.
“It was a pretty good season overall. Tournaments have been won, I finished the year in the Top 15. I think that step by step we (me and my team) need to return to the Top 10. We should try to win another Grand Slam,” she said.
“It is a pleasure that I was in the quarter-finals of two Grand Slams. It’s a good achievement, but for me, the achievement is just winning because I am a leader and I like to win. I don’t like to lose in the semi-finals and quarter-finals.”
Ostapenko, who ended the season as the world No 13, has indicated her intention to start the 2024 season at the WTA 500 Brisbane International during the first week of January.
