The not-so-curious case of Hsieh Su-wei

It's a slice! It's a smash! It's a two-handed drop shot with a backspin! No it's Hsieh Su-wei's handcraft! The 33-year-old Taiwanese star is playing some of the best tennis of her career in the current season. With two semifinals already under her belt, one at a Premier WTA event, Hsieh is taking giant strides towards bettering her career-high ranking of 23.

A look back at her early career

The most enthralling part about her journey to this point is that, not long ago, she was contemplating retirement and looking for nothing more than souvenirs to bid a farewell to tennis.

Hsieh had hired Australian doubles specialist Paul McNamee in 2011 with the sole aim of improving her doubles game and winning a Grand Slam title in the discipline. While she did go on to win two Grand Slam titles with Peng Shuai, her time with McNamee changed the course of her singles career as well.

As Hsieh recalled in one of her post-match conferences during her stint with McNamee, it was the Australian who pushed her into taking her singles career more seriously. Hsieh, for one, was skeptic, but the results began to show as she made her way to two WTA singles title in 2012.

Hsieh continued to be coached by McNamee part-time and enjoyed success as a doubles player. She took some time off after an ankle injury after her Grand Slam success and returned to the game with a renewed desire to do better in singles.

Things changed for Hsieh at this juncture once again. She began to travel with her boyfriend Frederic Aniere, who also coached her and her brother. She has since credited her new support system for improving her mental toughness and performance on the singles circuit.

She began focusing more on his fitness and incorporated yoga sessions into her regime. As Aniere noted at Miami Open, Hsieh was practicing tennis a lot lesser than earlier in her career and was focusing more on staying fit. The practice seems to have come in handy as she has managed to outlast, even at 33, some of the most earnest players on court including former world #1s Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki.

One of a kind: Hsieh used a two-handed forehand as a child to compensate for a lack of power in her forearm, and it has over time developed into a distinctive style of play.

Game play

This finally brings us to her tennis, her style of play which has always set her apart from the rest of the crop. She plays two-handed shots off both wings, an element of the game that was last scrutinized during Marion Bartoli's Wimbledon title run.

Hsieh's game also almost always characterised by great natural hand-skills. She has gained much notoriety for being able to hit any shot in the book from even the most uncomfortable of court positions with utter ease. The game-style developed very naturally for Hsieh with her playing the two-hander forehand from a young age to compensate for the lack of power in her forearm. The time that she was learning the basics of the game may seem forever ago now. She did not have the advantage of trying out shorter and lightweight carbon fibre rackets and so she stuck with the two handed strokes which has developed into a distinctive style at this point.

Hsieh never relied on a power-based game. She had none; what she did develop during her time on court was precise timing and the art of placing the ball well. Her strong hands ensured her the ability to use the pace of her opponents against them; she can effortlessly wear off the most powerful of attacks by redirecting the balls towards her opponents, creating exquisite angles on top of that, as was clearly the highlight of her showcase performance against Naomi Osaka at Miami this year.

Not to mention her outlandish ability to anticipate each of her opponents' next move, which make her formidable opponent to play against, even for the most strategic of players.

Most of these qualities have characterised her game for long, but one cannot help but take notice of the additions that she has made to her game over the course of her career. Her netplay improved exponentially during her years as a doubles specialist. And, she is self admittedly in the best of mental shape to play her tennis with her new support system in place.

What separates her from making it at the big stage?

While the belief that she could achieve success in singles was conspicuously absent from her early self, Hsieh seems to overcome that obstacle. She plays with greater belief her in winning capabilities as she pointed out in her post-match conference after beating Osaka. She said that she never felt 'out' of the match even when facing the wall. That is in stark contrast with her earlier views on her abilities.

Hsieh has managed to find the desire to win more at an interesting point in her career, Having attained all her short term goals that she had been chasing throughout her time on the tour, she has a newfound freedom with which she approaches her matches now. While she has not necessarily reinvented any particular part of her game, she has managed to clear her head of all doubt and has begun to see realize her strengths better than ever.

As the world continues to celebrate, one after the other, the arrival of youngsters like Osaka and Bianca Andreescu, who back themselves on their hard-hitting baseline games, Hsieh continues to move from strength to strength in search of her big break. Commentators, experts, and players on tour have begun to realize her as something more than a giant-killing threat, as someone who actually belongs in the big league. It is then, just about time for her major breakthrough for Hsieh, one for which she shall be celebrated in all her entirety.