Simply over a yr in the past, Iga Swiatek was recent from a confounding loss. Unseeded Czech teenager Linda Noskova had ended Swiatek’s bid for a primary Australian Open title within the third spherical, with the big-hitting 19-year-old coming from a set right down to overpower the then-world No. 1.
Swiatek knew her opponent had performed brilliantly, however she was confused by her personal type. She had been taking part in effectively forward of the primary main of 2024, however then “noticed my tennis being worse and worse daily,” she mentioned in an interview from her house in Warsaw a fortnight in the past.
The three-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss was not the one such defeat of 2024, a tumultuous yr for Swiatek. She received her fourth French Open title and third in a row, however misplaced early in two of the opposite Grand Slams. She cut up together with her coach of three years, Tomasz Wiktorowski, with whom she received all however certainly one of her majors, and she or he ended the season with a one-month doping ban throughout which she relinquished her world No. 1 rating to Aryna Sabalenka, after being discovered to have inadvertently ingested a banned substance through contaminated remedy.
On the court docket, her still-rare defeats had began to take more and more related form. Swiatek would transfer out in entrance, and her opponent would increase their stage. She would maintain making an attempt to dominate them, with little response to what was coming again over the online. Her groundstrokes would break down, significantly on her forehand. She would try to hit tougher and miss extra after which the match could be over.
“Typically I felt like my selections weren’t actually good on the court docket. I began taking part in, , too flat,” she mentioned.
In response, Swiatek employed Wim Fissette, who beforehand coached Kim Clijsters, Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka to Grand Slam titles. Fissette is her first coach from exterior Poland, and their partnership has already proven promise for Swiatek’s tennis future. She bought inside a degree of the Australian Open ultimate after a ruthless run to the semifinals, the place she misplaced to eventual champion Madison Keys in a deciding tiebreak. However her progress is much less about revolution than evolution; as a lot about going again in time as it’s wanting ahead.
Swiatek, 23, has already received 5 Grand Slam titles, 4 of them on the French Open. She has spent 125 weeks at world No. 1 — a tally bettered by solely six gamers ever. She is a world celebrity, with large industrial offers with manufacturers like Lancome, Visa and Porsche. The incremental changes occurring inside her tennis time machine aren’t at all times seen by that lens, as she strikes from match to match, now alighting in Doha, Qatar the place she is making an attempt to win the Qatar Open for the fourth time in a row.
“I see my recreation daily,” she mentioned. “It’s exhausting to see the adjustments as a result of they’re little. I do know. They solely appear massive on a much bigger horizon.”
Swiatek’s tennis breakthrough got here in 2020, when she received the French Open for the primary time ranked world No. 54. Nevertheless it’s her 2022 season, during which she first turned world No. 1, that defines her.
When Ash Barty introduced her shock retirement, Swiatek reached the highest of the rankings abruptly. She promptly blew away any suggestion of being an unworthy usurper by occurring a 37-match successful streak from February to June 2022. It took in six titles, and was the joint-longest run on the WTA facet since Steffi Graf’s between 1989 and 1990. Swiatek’s streak ended within the Wimbledon third spherical, however she then received the U.S. Open to supply a rejoinder to those that tried to characterize her as somebody who may solely thrive on clay.
Iga Swiatek’s Roland Garros dominance is unparalleled in latest WTA historical past. (Tim Clayton / Corbis through Getty Photos)
2022 launched the broader tennis world to Swiatek’s extraordinary capability for successful units 6-0 and 6-1 (there have been 45 such units in her 76 matches that yr). These “bagel” and “breadstick” scorelines turned so commonplace that “Iga’s Bakery” entered tennis parlance, with Swiatek successful 67 of her 76 matches for a win proportion of 88.2, up from 70.6 the earlier yr. She is but to raised that determine.
Swiatek discovered the best stability of figuring out when to assault and when to retreat, and used her topspin forehand to devastating impact. It may really feel unnatural for a world No. 1 to not at all times be the aggressor, however Swiatek’s phenomenal motion and depth meant that even when she was towards a extra highly effective opponent she would very hardly ever be outmanoeuvred.
“We’re working another way a bit of bit, by way of getting again to my roots,” Swiatek says of how she and Fissette are shifting her tennis ahead.
“I really feel like I can actually be a fantastic defensive participant, however use my possibilities to be proactive, as I did a bit of higher in 2022. So with Wim we’re engaged on my footwork loads, simply motion and with the ability to get again up from actually defensive, powerful positions to to nonetheless win a degree.”
Swiatek and Fissette began working collectively in October, however final month’s Australian Open was their first Grand Slam collectively. Swiatek racked up set scores of 6-3, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 and 6-2 to succeed in the semifinals, at occasions by overpowering opponents however extra typically by choosing the second to take over a rally. After dropping only one recreation in beating former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu to succeed in the fourth spherical, Swiatek in a information convention described her efficiency as “sort of good,” including that “I felt just like the ball is listening to me.”
“I really feel like in Australia it has been working very well,” she mentioned within the video interview, now with a little bit of distance from the occasion. “And I felt the management over the ball and plenty of confidence as a result of I knew that I had sort of nothing to lose … I can solely go ahead and use what Wim has delivered to the group. Clearly with extra time on the follow court docket additionally some adjustments in my recreation are going to come back.
“You recognize, over the previous few years, I discovered how one can be an aggressive participant. And the participant that makes use of the primary likelihood within the rally to go ahead … I at all times have to recollect what is basically my greatest weapon.”
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Swiatek’s run to the Melbourne semifinals was her deepest run at a hard-court main since her title in New York. It’s a curious lean spell as a result of exterior of the majors, Swiatek has excelled on the floor. In 2023, Swiatek received 42 out of fifty hard-court matches for an 84 p.c win-rate, whereas final yr she went 34-6 (85 p.c). Even Sabalenka, world No. 1 and hard-court extraordinaire, can’t match these win percentages, and Swiatek has received 12 of her 22 WTA Tour titles on the floor.
“It’s simply physics,” Swiatek says. “On clay, it’s going to be a bit simpler as a result of my topspin will bounce greater and my actions can be perhaps higher than what different women can convey with the sliding and altering path. However on exhausting courts, I really feel like I’m a great participant as effectively.
“It was the identical with Rafa (Nadal). All people at all times talked about clay, however like he’s the GOAT (best of all time) principally on each floor. Additionally successful Wimbledon twice. Not each participant can have these outcomes on even one floor. That is one thing that persons are specializing in, and I’m speaking about this as effectively, as a result of clay is the place I’ve probably the most enjoyable, however I like exhausting courts as effectively. And I really feel like I’ve my weapons and I can use them.
“I wish to be an all floor participant for positive.”
2024 dented Swiatek’s ambitions to be an all-surface participant. Outdoors of successful a fourth French Open, she went out within the third spherical on the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and the quarters on the U.S. Open.
Iga Swiatek’s technical enhancements on her serve have helped her grow to be much more assertive. (Quinn Rooney / Getty Photos)
Going again to among the most disappointing defeats of final yr in an effort to study from them has been a part of her evolution course of. Pondering again to the Noskova loss in Melbourne, in addition to those to Yulia Putintseva and Jessica Pegula at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, Swiatek admits: “There are matches the place I do know what went flawed and I even knew that on the court docket. However I had hassle implementing my ways and doing what we truly agreed with the coach.”
She was “fairly confused” by the defeat to Putintseva, during which the Kazakh produced a virtually flawless hour of tennis in a show overshadowed by discourse about Swiatek and grass. Putintseva at one level made only one unforced error in 11 video games, however Swiatek additionally didn’t seem to have any reply to vary the movement of the match. This stands in distinction to a elementary of Swiatek’s recreation from three years in the past, which she says she is working with Fissette to revive: “My plan B with working, to actually make my opponents assume twice of how one can play, as a result of I would like them to remember that the ball goes to come back again.”
Whereas Wimbledon stays a key ambition, she is practical about how tough this can be if she continues to win the French Open with such regularity, given the tight turnaround between the 2. Swiatek tends to play an enormous quantity in the course of the clay-court season due to her equally wonderful report on the occasions previous to Roland Garros, final yr successful the 2 clay-court WTA 1,000 titles (one rung beneath a Grand Slam). It’s straightforward to take this Nadal-like domination of the floor without any consideration, however it’s distinctive, and takes a toll.
A month after final yr’s Wimbledon and having suffered the frustration of ‘solely’ successful a bronze medal on the Paris Olympics, additionally held at Roland Garros, Swiatek spoke on the Cincinnati Open in regards to the relentlessness of the schedule.
“I believe we now have too many tournaments within the season,” she instructed Sky Sports activities after beating Mirra Andreeva to succeed in the semifinals, the place she misplaced to Sabalenka.
“It’s not going to finish effectively. It makes tennis much less enjoyable for us. I like taking part in in all these locations, but it surely’s fairly exhausting and I believe many of the WTA gamers would let you know that, particularly while you’re taking part in at a excessive stage.
“I don’t assume it must be like that as a result of we need to relaxation a bit of bit extra. Possibly persons are going to hate me (for saying that).”
On the U.S. Open shortly after, Swiatek appeared burnt out, as did many gamers within the wake of an Olympic Video games that made 2024 an much more exhausting schedule than normal. “For positive, typically I’ve this sense like I must, I don’t know, please individuals,” she says. “Or I don’t know, play tennis to entertain. And it’s not straightforward to try this once I don’t really feel one hundred pc on the court docket. However more often than not I actually take pleasure in this and more often than not I’ve plenty of power from the followers.”
Like an growing variety of gamers on the tour, Swiatek has been open about her psychological well being. In Poland, particularly amongst her mother and father’ era, it has typically been a taboo. Swiatek has been decided to problem that: “I believe an important factor is figuring out that there are specialists on the market that may assist you to. So I simply need individuals to pay attention to that as a result of I do know that many people battle it doesn’t matter what our job and our scenario is.
“It’s been an necessary subject over the previous years. And sooner or later, for positive, will probably be — additionally with with us consistently being on social media the place individuals choose us and so they remark stuff that they wouldn’t actually say to our face. That is additionally one thing that I believe youngsters at college battle with. So individuals have to be conscious that they will use assist.”
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From very early on in her profession, Swiatek has positioned an enormous quantity of significance on her frame of mind, permitting a psychology and psychological coach to play a central position in her coaching. In 2019, when beginning out as an adolescent on the WTA Tour, the Polish psychologist and former sailor Daria Abramowicz began turning into an everyday attendee at her matches. Six years on, Abramowicz remains to be an important member of the Swiatek group.
To search out calm at high-pressure moments, Swiatek likes to be at one with nature — discovering a quiet park or seaside throughout a Grand Slam. Typically she finds different shops — forward of the Australian Open in 2021, she watched and mirrored on a documentary about Princess Diana to raised perceive the pitfalls of sudden fame.
An enormous a part of the work Abramowicz has performed with Swiatek has been to deepen the participant’s relationships with family members and mates, the individuals who can present emotional stability — “the human anchor,” as Abramowicz calls it.
This got here in particularly helpful in September final yr, when Swiatek was given a provisional suspension after testing optimistic for a hint focus of the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ). The Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA) in the end issued a one-month doping ban, after ruling that Swiatek’s ingestion of TMZ was not intentional. They accepted her clarification and proof that she had taken a contaminated dose of melatonin, which she had used to assist her sleep to fight jet lag.
However for a few months, Swiatek was in limbo. She was knowledgeable of the optimistic outcome on September 12, precisely a month after testing optimistic in an out-of-competition pattern on August 12 forward of the Cincinnati Open. Swiatek appealed the provisional suspension inside 10 days of the unique discover and the enchantment was profitable, so her provisional suspension was not publicly disclosed. That is in keeping with the TADP (Tennis Anti-Doping Programme) laws, and is identical mechanism by which the boys’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s two provisional suspensions, imposed after he twice examined optimistic for the anabolic steroid clostebol, weren’t disclosed.
Swiatek missed three occasions whereas the method was ongoing, main her to lose the No. 1 rating. She defined her absence from the primary of them, the China Open in September, by citing “private issues.” Some felt let down by the obfuscation when her ban was made public in November, having believed that Swiatek was taking a while out having appeared so mentally and bodily exhausted on the U.S. Open, her most up-to-date occasion.
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“For positive, it wasn’t straightforward to maintain all the pieces inside,” she says.
“Then again, I had my help group and my household as effectively. So I believe it’s necessary in your closest ones to be there while you want them.
“Additionally, I do know that it might be difficult if the data bought out to the general public earlier as a result of with out the right clarification and truly with out the entire course of that occurred afterwards, of me proving that I’m not responsible… I believe with out this, individuals will choose me immediately.”
Swiatek says that “probably the most tough factor was simply not figuring out what’s going to occur with me for a while, not having my very own destiny in my fingers. It was a troublesome lesson as a result of I’m a management freak”.
Swiatek can also be somebody who comes throughout as desperate to please, and her discomfort on the indiscretion, and the ensuing perceptions of her, has been apparent.
After dropping to Keys 10-8 in that Melbourne tiebreak, Swiatek had not one of the confusion and concern that got here together with her defeat to Noskova.
“This yr it was totally different,” she mentioned in a information convention. “For positive it offers me a optimistic vibe for the remainder of the season.” In Melbourne, she was again to hitting her prodigious forehand with a number of spin, and once more appeared to be discovering the best stability between figuring out when to assault and when to depend on her phenomenal athleticism and anticipation. Her smoothed-out serve has gained pace and efficiency since 2022, however it’s nonetheless a piece in progress.
Iga Swiatek’s partnership with Wim Fissette has already regarded fruitful for her improvement. (Robert Prange / Getty Photos)
A part of the positivity she feels is right down to Fissette: “He has had a big impact by way of what sort of ambiance I’ve within the group. And likewise, , the help he has given me to be extra assured, and simply extra dedicated typically to the photographs that haven’t been working one hundred pc beforehand.”
To thrive on the court docket, she must really feel content material off it too. To unwind, Swiatek builds Lego and reads books — she’s at the moment studying R. F. Kuang’s fantasy novel, “Babel.” She loves listening to music, from tougher rock like AC/DC and Weapons N’ Roses to bands like Pink Floyd, Florence and the Machine and poppier acts like Taylor Swift and ABBA. She says that if she may very well be something however a tennis participant she could be a musician.
“However I believe I’ve no expertise, so it might be powerful,” she deadpans.
Possibly one thing to do with math could be extra pure to Swiatek. That was her favorite topic at college, and some years in the past Abramowicz observed how Swiatek turned each calmer and extra centered if she spent the hours earlier than her matches engaged on homework, particularly math. As soon as she’d graduated from highschool, Abramowicz had Swiatek work on crossword puzzles or sudokus as a cognitive warm-up.
A pure introvert, Swiatek doesn’t first seem like somebody who may relish all of the off-court commitments with sponsors {that a} sporting celebrity has to handle. However she says that whereas she “completely simply cuts off” from this type of factor throughout tournaments, exterior of them it’s a unique story.
“I like having photoshoots and I can really feel a bit totally different typically doing a photoshoot for Lancome or all these manufacturers which are actually elegant,” she says. “Often sweating on the court docket is a unique feeling than being in a phenomenal gown and smiling for the digital camera. So I actually take pleasure in that.”
Trying forward, Swiatek hopes that, in contrast to final yr, the Australian Open will present a platform for the remainder of the season. Graf, certainly one of her position fashions like Nadal, feels optimistic on her behalf.
“She’s undoubtedly set herself aside the previous few years and I believe together with her begin to the yr, she’ll come again robust,” the 22-time Grand Slam singles champion mentioned in a cellphone interview final week.
For Swiatek, coming again robust means “being on tour and having fun with taking part in, additionally caring for the individuals which are round me. To have a great ambiance in order that we are able to all simply be completely satisfied on tour, ? So that is what I hope for.” In Doha, it meant a third-round match — towards Noskova, her conqueror in Melbourne little over a yr in the past. Swiatek misplaced the primary set regardless of hitting extra winners than unforced errors, with Noskova serving brilliantly throughout the match.
Swiatek broke the Czech’s serve early within the second set, and broke once more after Noskova responded instantly with a break of her personal. Then, after buying and selling breaks within the third set, she stole one other at 4-4 and served out the match, to arrange a quarterfinal towards Elena Rybakina. Noskova took the match to her, however Swiatek held agency, utilizing the Plan B she described, exhibiting Noskova that the ball was going to come back again.
The time machine whirrs into life once more.
(High images: Getty Photos; Illustration: Dan Goldfarb for The Athletic)