Finding Your Groove

Alcaraz, Swiatek, Rune Talk Tricky Search For Rhythm

By Richard Osborn

Sometimes the pros get out of the blocks in a hurry; able to tap into their game from the word go. (Take Rafael Nadal’s run at Roland Garros in 2008, when the Spaniard surrendered just 41 games over seven matches without the loss of a single set.) But more often than not, it takes a match or two (or three) for them to find their rhythm, their groove, their peak form.

Sometimes you have to work your way into a tournament.

“It’s difficult,” said Carlos Alcaraz, the No. 2 seed at the 2025 Cincinnati Open. “It can be tricky to get used to the court, the surface, the conditions, to have my best form in the first round. It’s really difficult to play your best. I’m trying every tournament to play a really good match in the first round, but if my best tennis comes after two or three matches, it is what it is.”

“It depends,” reigning Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek said. “Sometimes I feel great from the start. Sometimes I need to get my rhythm and figure out exactly what I can do on this court, with these conditions, with these balls. Then, later on, I feel like I’m smarter and the decisions are already better naturally just because you get the repetitions. Most of time, I think it’s like Carlos says, but every tournament is different.”

Into the quarterfinals at the Lindner Family Tennis Center for the second year in a row, Holger Rune says he has yet to play his best tennis in Cincinnati. That’s good news for the ninth-ranked Dane, who still found a way to get through his first three matches and knows his acme has yet to come.

“I need time. I need matches to find my best level,” he said. “That was definitely my feeling in the opening round [a 7-5, 7-6(5) edging of Roman Safiullin]. It took all my other qualities to get through, but it was not really my game. I accepted that. The most important is winning the match, giving yourself an opportunity to play one more day. That way, you can keep building. After that, you just keep working on your level and it’s going forward. When you have those practice days, you can go a little bit deeper into the details on what didn’t go so well, and figure out what you have to do better.”