By Chris Oddo | Tuesday February 5, 2019
Dayana Yastremska has acquitted herself ridiculously well since the start of the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open last October—this is not hyperbole, tennis fans. At the time she was the World No.102, but after rolling through the draw without the loss of a set she would rise into the Top 70. The title at Hong Kong was just a mere tremor compared to the violent quake that the 18-year-old has produced since.
In total, Yastremska has gone 18-4 since the start of her run in Hong Kong, winning two titles and notching her first main draw victory at a major, where she eventually fell to Serena Williams in the third round.
Along the way Yastremska has notched two wins over two-time major champion Garbiñe Muguruza, and logged triumphs over cagey veterans Sam Stosur and Carla Suarez Navarro at the Aussie Open.
Today she finds herself at a career-high ranking of 34 in the world with 747 points to defend between now and the beginning of the Asian swing. That’s actually quite a few points for a player that is just cutting her teeth at the tour level, but Yastremska tore it up on the Challenger circuit last year, and turned in an overall record of 40-19 at all levels.
I'm guessing that Yastremska likely see those points and raise us a few hundred more before the summer is over—it’s hard not to see this firebrand tucked inside the WTA's Top 20 at some point this year.
Yastremska's winning ways didn’t just suddenly start last October. The Odessa native, a 2016 Wimbledon Girls Singles runner-up and former junior No.6, has been doing it for well over a year now, just not with the spotlight on her.
That spotlight will certainly be on her over the next few months, as prognosticators and pundits look to see whether or not Yastremska can handle the pressure that comes with a rapid rise up the rankings.
That said: there are clear-cut reasons for her success, as well as reasons to believe that more of it is on the way.
Yastremska is a phenomenal striker of the ball from both wings. When she cracks winners, jaws drop. She’s lean, rangy and limber and, during rallies, nearly everything that comes to her baseline seems to end up in her hitting zone. She's surprisingly sturdy, surprisingly quick and surprisingly strong. She produces winners with ease, and frequently hits double or triple that of her opponent, scorching her backhand down the line to shorten points or driving an inside-out forehand with purpose.
When it comes to mechanics and stroke production Yastremska is exceptional—she hits it clean and mean and doesn’t overthink things on the court. Yastremska plays with a sinister ease. She seems to enjoy having the match on her racquet and she’s as competitive as they come.
Of course there are inconsistencies that come with playing this brand of gun-slinging tennis. Just ask Jelena Ostapenko. But thus far, the advantages are far outweighing the downside.
Yastremska’s incredible ball striking skills will take her far on their own, but it’s this competitive fire and desire to improve that will help Yastremska do more damage at the higher levels of the game. We can see that she burns to win, we saw it in Australian when she approached Serena Williams in tears, so disappointed with the fact that she couldn’t find a way to push the great American in their third-round encounter, and we saw it in the final at Hua Hin on Sunday when she created controversy by taking a medical timeout before the final game, with Ajla Tomljanovic waiting to serve for the title.
Yastremska would reel off four games and eventually steal the title from the Aussie in a third-set breaker—whether you like the way the 18-year-old handled the situation or not, it’s hard to deny that this is a player that is ready to do whatever it takes to win.
As she develops Yastremska will need to fashion a serve that works for her. She’s prone to going off the rails and is third in the WTA in double-faults this season. She’ll also want to become a net presence on a more regular basis. She has the chops to do this, but at this stage of her progression lacks the tennis IQ and the tactical savvy to use her long limbs and tremendous swing volley to become even more lethal.
Make no mistake, Yastremska is very much a work in progress. There are holes in her game and she’s got a lot of maturing to do. But with her extreme abilities from the baseline, her fitness and her agility, she has the potential to become more than just a Top 10 player. Yastremska has future No.1 written all over her game, now it’s just a matter of putting in all the work and gaining all the experience that it takes to make the finished product purr.