2025 wasn’t the most dominant season of Iga Swiatek’s career, but it was darn good (62-15 with three titles so far). The Polish star, who reached an emotional summit in July when she won her sixth major title at Wimbledon, talked about her campaign ahead of this year’s WTA Finals in Riyadh.
She sounded very much like a player at peace with her game and her progress, with an eye on bigger and perhaps even better achievements down the road.
“It was probably the season with the most ups and downs and in terms of the results and sometimes how I felt playing tournaments,” she said. “But I think I learned a lot. Even though I’m already an experienced player, I had some challenges this year that really were kind of new, and I needed to adjust to them a little bit more also.
“I think it was the first year when I didn’t feel like I’m still young. So that was also a different feeling. But overall, I think winning Wimbledon made this season already super special and amazing, and just put it over anything else I would say, and then playing great in Cincinnati and winning so as well.”
“It was a tricky season, but in the end, I can say it was a good one.”
Swiatek started her WTA Finals campaign with another impressive performance on Saturday, as she sailed past 2025 Australian Open winner Madison Keys, 6-1, 6-2.
She’s bidding for her second title at the tour’s season-ending championships, after going a perfect 5-0 in 2023 to claim the title.
The Years Blend Together
Asked about the fact that she is the youngest player to qualify for the WTA Finals in five successive seasons in over a decade, Swiatek talked about her age versus her perceived age.
“I feel like I’m 40 already,” she said, laughing. “No but like, seriously, for sure, the life on tour is intense, and all the seasons are super intense. So it’s easy to forget how young I am as well, because I feel like I’ve just been on tour for like, 10 years. Actually, it’s been six, but it’s been just really busy and also efficient. So this is something that I’m happy about.
“I am still young, so there’s a lot to change and improve in my game, and it’s always good to find that perspective at the end, especially before the preseason or before some periods of time when you have bit more [time to] practice.”
Blair Henley asked Swaitek to go over some of the technical advancements she made in her game in 2025. Turns out there were a few big ones.
“I think technically for sure, the way I played on faster surfaces and the way I handle sometimes faster balls, ones that were an issue for me in previous seasons, this was something that I felt improved totally,” she said. “Also the speed of the serve.. I was fifth or something in aces this season. I would love for my percentage to always be consistent, so that’s the next goal. But now I know that I can serve those speeds and and serve a lot of aces as well, and get some free points, so I think these two things went really great. And honestly, this was my goal.”
.webp?ssl=1 "Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri or Max Verstappen – who looks stronger at each of the final four rounds?")
