By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday May 6, 2025
It’s almost strange to say it: Iga Swiatek has gone three clay-court tournaments without winning a title. No, the sky isn’t falling – far from it – but by the Polish juggernaut’s lofty standard, it is surprising.
This is a player that rode a 23-match winning streak on the surface into the Olympic semifinals in Paris last year. We were becoming so accustomed to her dominance on the surface that it was getting hard to imagine her ever losing on it again.
But things change quickly in tennis, and now – just 10 months later – Swiatek is struggling to find her self-belief and comfort ahead of her title defense in Rome.
Failed title defenses in Doha and Indian Wells raised a few flags. Swiatek didn’t seem to be comfortable in her own skin and losses to her personal kryptonite Jelena Ostapenko (in Doha) and rising teen Mirra Andreeva (at Indian Wells) seems to highlight her relative frailty.
Would clay be the elixir, the panacea for Swiatek’s struggles? So far it has not been.
Ostapenko got her again in Stuttgart, and then she suffered an unthinkably lopsided loss to Coco Gauff in the semis in Madrid, 6-1, 6-1. Another title defense down the drain, and more reason to wonder what is causing the most reliable clay-courter in the women’s game to drop her level?
It sounds like Swiatek has pinpointed something. She’s having trouble in her head, and it’s leading to poor decisions.
Come for the social content, stay for the sweet surprise!Iga Swiatek receives Tiramisu during Media Day in Rome. pic.twitter.com/u5i1cmD8IP
— Jimmie48 Photography (@JJlovesTennis) May 6, 2025
“This year I feel like I am struggling a bit more with my perfectionism,” Swiatek said on media day in Rome. “I want to for sure focus on being disciplined on the court and making right choices, not the choices that sometimes pop out in my head, but being really solid. I think I can do that. This is my main focus now.”
Perhaps it really is that simple. Just accept the struggle, play the simple, grinding game, and focus really hard on the patterns that have always worked.
Swiatek surely has it in her to make a sudden turnaround in Rome, and Paris, where the surface is slower and suits her game like a warm glove in the dead of winter. The slower conditions will give her a fraction more time to establish her patterns, and focus on “being really solid.”
And, if you take away the loss to Gauff, and more than a few shaky moments in the quarterfinal win over Madison Keys in Madrid, you could say that Swiatek is not far from her best. There haven’t been any first-round losses, and in Stuttgart she was close to finally getting a win over Ostapenko.
The 23-year-old World No.2 takes solace in her consistency, while at the same time sounding a bit impatient with herself.
Three time champ’s back in her living room!Iga Swiatek practices in Campo Centrale on Monday. pic.twitter.com/qe3uq7KIEr
— Jimmie48 Photography (@JJlovesTennis) May 5, 2025
“The match with Coco for sure wasn’t good,” she said. “I had trouble focusing. I wasn’t moving well. I think everything kind of built up at one moment. That’s why the score was like that.
“For sure I’m happy with the consistency. This is something that I always want. There’s no tournament where I go in and I’m not prepared. But for sure I want to also win some tournaments. That’s also the goal.”
Though some might wonder about Swiatek’s relationship with coach Wim Fissette, the Pole had nothing but good things to say about him in her press conference in Rome. She sounds like a player who believes she’s on track to end her title drought, and soon.
“It’s just like one day,” she said of her loss to Gauff in Madrid. “You can’t judge everything by it. I’m continuing the work that I’ve been doing. I trust the process. We’ll see on the next one.”
