Iga Swiatek endured a mixed 2024 and this year she will be hoping to try and regain her place as the world’s best female player.

The Polish superstar managed to win a third successive French Open crown last year but will be disappointed to see her position as the world number one slip.

Swiatek was thrashed by Coco Gauff in the United Cup over the weekend and now a revenge mission will be in her sights at the Australian Open.

The 5ft 9in performer has never won in Melbourne, with her best run at the event coming in 2022 when she reached the semi-final.

Ahead of the competition, Swiatek has been discussing certain aspects of her game and has been answering questions about the start of her career.

What Iga Swiatek told her coach after making WTA debut

Swiatek has provided an injury update ahead of the Australian Open and perhaps she won’t be a full tilt this year.

The 23-year-old turned pro in 2016 and she’s been discussing how she felt after playing on the WTA Tour for the first time, making a bold admission to her coach.

“I can’t say that it was hard because there are people that are literally having this transition for many, many years. For me, it was basically a few months.

She told the Tennis Insider Club podcast: “But I remember the first tournament I played in Auckland, I literally told my coach I don’t belong here. Let’s go back to ITF’s. But then I went to the Australian Open and managed to get through quailes and go to the second round and then the fourth round of Roland Garros.

“So I can’t say it was tough but everybody has doubts. Even if someone says they were confident from the beginning that’s not really 100% true. But it went pretty quickly honestly, I got through every stage pretty fast.”

Swiatek will have a tough task to win Australian Open

Taking all of the Grand Slam events into consideration, the Australian Open has proved one of Swiatek’s worst.

Wimbledon is perhaps slightly more of a problem for the Polish star with the quarter-final being her best finish at the All England Club.

As a result, Swiatek has it all to do to claim success at the Australian Open this time around and perhaps it’s hard to imagine her winning a first Melbourne crown in 2025.

It’s fascinating, however, to hear that a multi major winner struggled to believe that she belonged on the tour after her debut match.

She’s come a long way since that period and Swiatek would dearly love to claim a maiden Australian Open title when things get underway on Sunday.

Battling Iga Swiatek took Poland into a United Cup semifinal against Kazakhstan as last year’s runners-up beat Britain in the mixed-teams tournament on Thursday.

The five-time Grand Slam champion and world No 2 Swiatek fought back to beat Katie Boulter 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6-4 and give Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the quarterfinal in Sydney.

With the Australian Open just over a week away, Swiatek has now won all three of her singles matches at the United Cup to launch her season.

“I am just exhausted,” Swiatek, who required a medical timeout in the deciding set and had strapping on one thigh, said after prevailing in just under three hours.

“This match was crazy, so many changes in momentum.”

A relieved Swiatek added: “I took four painkillers, a lot hurt, but happy we won.”
It was a first-ever meeting between Swiatek and Boulter, who is ranked 24 in the world, but they did practise together before the United Cup.

Swiatek, at her first event since news broke in late November that she served a one-month ban for a doping violation, roared back in the second set after Boulter won a tight first.

The former No 1 Swiatek took a medical timeout at 2-1 down in the final set as the duo went toe-to-toe in a tense encounter.

Swiatek, 23, finally wrapped it up on the first match point when Boulter fired into the net, before running over to the rest of the Poland team courtside.

Before that, the 16th-ranked Hubert Hurkacz, who had not been at his best to start the season and had a new coach, defeated Billy Harris 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 in the men’s singles.

The victory against a player ranked 109 places below him gave Poland one foot in the last four.
It was also a badly needed victory on a personal level for Hurkacz, who had lost both his previous singles matches at the United Cup.

“Super-pleased with myself. Today was a really difficult battle with Billy,” said Hurkacz. “Definitely happy to get through this one.”

The 27-year-old added: “This win is crucial for me to build confidence and get another match in.”
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American Legend Questions Iga Swiatek’s 2025 Season After a Turbulent Year of Coaching Changes and Doping Saga

Iga Swiątek suffered ups and downs last season. First, she parted ways with her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, in October after three years of partnership. Then, a month later, she tested positive for the banned substance Trimetazidine(TMZ). Now, the Polish player is gearing up for the 2025 season with her new coach Wim Fissette. Although she revealed her renewed zeal for the upcoming tournaments, the former pro, Andy Roddick, raised concerns over her next season.

In this week’s episode of Served podcast, Andy Roddick and Jon Wertheim delve into the WTA Top 20 rankings at the conclusion of the 2024 season. They reflect on their own performance throughout the year, discuss their aspirations for 2025, and identify the areas they need to improve to achieve their goals. There, they also discussed Swiatek’s 2024 season, including coaching changes and doping saga, at length.

Roddick said, “My only concern about Iga Swiatek, at scale, is how she lands in Australia and how she deals with questions…she is sensitive…I am just concerned about her coaching change, this news coming out, how she shows up in Australia, obviously needs to perform a little bit better at slams outside of the French Open, which she is even listing she owns at this point.“

The American former player’s statement highlighted his intrigue in seeing how Swiatek maintains her pace, given how her doping ordeal impacted her mental health. He also highlighted Swiatek’s coordination with her new coach Wim Fissette. Reflecting on this, Roddick believed Swiatek needs to show her brilliance outside the French Open’s clay court. Considering she has four of them already and just one hard court major(won at the 2022 US Open).

Fun fact: Swiatek has only advanced till the Semis in Australia. This happened in 2022. But she was defeated at the hands of Danielle Collins.

Like Roddick, former pro-Andrea Petkovic also raised questions about Swiatek’s potential in the upcoming Australian Open tournament. She believed after what happened with Swiatek last season, she might need more time to show her best form.

Andrea Petkovic believes Iga Swiatek’s first month in the 2025 season might have “some residue”

The German legend attended Rennae Stubbs’s podcast and delved into Iga Swiatek’s case after she failed the doping test. At the beginning, Petkovic believed that the Polish star would excel in the Melbourne Major, but her perspective shifted after Swiatek’s challenges in recent months.

Petkovic said, “I thought this was going to be the year, 2025, where Iga [Swiatek] does really well at the Australian Open, I know how her brain functions and I know she wants to get better at the things she is not as good at yet, and I know she has worked specifically in the off-season on that.” The German pro here highlighted Swiatek’s zeal and spirit to offer her best performance and show her growth in surfaces she might not be very comfortable with.

However, Petkovic brought a shift in her tone and said, “I just think that with her personality and her anxiousness there might be some residue in the first month, I just don’t know if she can bring it in the first month on a surface which traditionally doesn’t suit her well with all the residue of what happened at the end of the season. Once she shakes it off, I think she will start playing really well again, I think she will be great in 2025, even better than she was this year.”

Iga Swiatek’s bad times are finally over, but her 2025 still remains in doubt. However, following the Polish star’s spirit and zeal, it seems that she will soon overcome her mental barrier and showcase her brilliance on the court. Do you think she can do it?

Iga Świątek didn’t forget her admirers ahead of Christmas. The world No. 2, who is preparing for the upcoming season, shared a special photo on social media featuring her with Santa Claus, along with a simple but sincere message: “Merry Christmas.”

For Świątek, the holidays are a time to rest but also to prepare intensively for the upcoming competition.

On December 30th, she will begin her competition in the United Cup team event in Sydney.

Iga Swiatek’s relentless ability to crush her opponents has given her an aura that sends a shiver of fear down the spine of her opponents, according to British star Jodie Burrage.

Swiatek has a stinning record of winning sets 6-0, with her record of winning a stunning 22 sets 6-0 in the 2023 and she backed that up with 14 more sets won without the concession of a single game this season.

While she finished the year as world No 2, Burrage has told Tennis365 that players are wary of being the next victim of a 6-0 ‘bagel’ set dished out by Swiatek.

Speaking to Tennis365 with her clothing partners Penguin, the player who reached a career-high ranking of No 84 earlier this year has opened up on her experiences playing against the best players in the women’s game.

Burrage recorded her only win against an opponent ranked in the top ten when she beat Paula Badosa on a grass court at Eastbourne in 2022 and she has also faced top-ranked players Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka.

Breaking into the top 100 of the WTA Rankings was a fine achievement for Burrage before she was struck down by injuries and she has opened up on her experiences playing the top players in the game.

“They are different gravy,” said Burrage with a smile as she discussed her experiences with the game’s top players. “It feels like I can’t actually compare myself to them yet.

“When I played against Sabalenka in the second round of the US Open last year, I really wasn’t happy with how I played, but it was still only 6-3 6-2.

“I had a few break point chances and other opportunities. I wasn’t happy about how I hit my forehand in that match and yet I still managed to win games and create chances.

Iga Swiatek’s coach Wim Fissettte has fired back at Nick Kyrgios and other repeated critics amid the ongoing fallout from the world No 2’s doping violation.

Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek has now completed a one-month suspension after testing positive for TMZ ahead of the Cincinnati Open in August 2024.

The 23-year-old was found to be of “no significant fault” for the violation after successfully proving that her melatonin medication had been contaminated before use.

Reaction to Swiatek’s case has understandably been divided with former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios among her outspoken critics.

Having also repeatedly criticised Jannik Sinner following news of his case emerging this summer, the Australian accused Sinner and Swiatek of trying to play the victim.

“Once you get caught, you can’t act like the victim,” said Kyrgios on the Nothing Major podcast.

“It’s nothing personal. What do I have that’s personal against Iga Swiatek? I have nothing personal against Iga. Everybody should be able to play on an equal footing.

“I repeat, once you get caught, you can’t act like the victim anymore. That’s what pisses me off even more. I’m like: ‘Wait a second… you’re using your team, right?’”

However, Swiatek has now been backed by coach Fissette, who previously worked with the likes of Kim Clijsters and Angelique Kerber.

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Speaking to Onet, he claimed that anyone who properly looked into the case would see that Swiatek was a victim of “bad luck”.

Fissette commented: “There will always be people who will be negative.

“But I think that anyone who has read all the documents that Iga has provided and shown to the whole world, sees what happened – and should understand that it was just bad luck.

“It can happen to any player. I think that those people who are negative about the case, we should ask a few questions about Iga’s report and thus check whether they have actually read it.”

Having been provisionally suspended for 22 days before a successful appeal, Swiatek had just eight days of her ban left to serve once the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced their ruling.

That means that the world No 2 will be able to start the season as normal, with the Pole set to take a leading role for her nation at the United Cup, which starts on December 27th.

Swiatek won five WTA titles in 2024, including her fifth major at Roland Garros.

However, she failed to win a title following her triumph in Paris and lost the world No 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka towards the end of the season.

That was in part due to missing both the China Open and Wuhan Open, where it later emerged she was serving her provisional suspension.

Swiatek’s partnership with Fissette began in the aftermath of her suspension with the two having only worked together at the WTA Finals and Billie Jean King Cup Finals.