Let’s be honest, 2025 hasn’t been the best year for former world number 1 Iga Swiatek, who hasn’t been able to excel on the clay as she is known to. Swiatek, who has won four French Open titles, ended up losing in the semi-finals to Sabalenka this year, and in the Italian Open just prior, was knocked out in the round of 32 match against Danielle Collins.
Analysts have questioned her form throughout this time, and Swiatek herself has spoken about how her psychologist, Daria Abramovic, has helped her deal with the loss, saying after her French Open exit, “Defeats used to hurt a little more. Daria taught me to get perspective and reformulate my thoughts and beliefs. And when I was younger and a little more emotional, it was harder to simply put it into practice. After a defeat, I always feel determined to improve. I almost immediately want to understand what I did wrong and not let it happen again.” While it’s clear that Iga relies a lot on her team for support, there was a brief period of doubt following her consecutive losses.
Recently, Swiatek’s physiotherapist, Maciej Ryszczuk, broke their silence on Swiatek’s losses and how this has affected her trust in the team. Considering Swiatek has had a recent change in coach, beginning a partnership with Wim Fissette in 2024 after parting ways with Tomasz Wiktorowski, Rysczuk felt the need to clarify how Swiatek is taking the losses, and according to Ryscuk, they haven’t affected the trust she holds with her team at all!
Image via Facebook/Iga Swiatek
“Iga is a person who, when she works with someone for a longer period of time, trusts them,” Ryszczuk said in a recent interview with TVP sport, “But also talks and asks questions. As coaches, we take responsibility for our work and recommendations. It’s obvious that the final word belongs to the player, but Iga, despite her vision, is able to fully trust the team in these matters.” Ryszczuk also brought to attention the fact that Swiatek has recently been complaining about her legs, which were her strong point beforehand.
According to him, “A person does not always feel their body the way they want to feel; they move completely differently, react completely differently to balls on return, they also position themselves differently. That was the main thing. It is difficult to cope with this situation.” With regard to whether Swiatek has now overcome the problem, all Ryszczuk said was, “It is hard to say now, although it was not very visible in Paris, so I hope it will get better and better.”
The question of whether Swiatek has retained trust in her team after this year’s losing streak is particularly interesting because Wim Fissette was not her first choice for a coach after parting ways with Wiktorowski!
Iga Swiatek’s coaching disappointments have not affected her trust in her team as she prepares to hit the grass
Despite her bad luck on the clay this year, Swiatek is preparing to hit the grass, starting with Bad Homburg and then heading towards Wimbledon. this isn’t her surface of choice, as Swiatek, despite once having been world number 1, has never won Wimbledon, so one has to wonder, as she heads into this leg of the year, how is she feeling about the coaching fallout of 2024?
The truth is, when Swiatek parted with former coach of three years Wiktorowski, she had offered well-known WTA coach Sandra Zaniewska the position on her team. Zaniewska, however, turned down the offer because she had already started working with Marta Kostyuk, saying, “For me as a person, it would be a big faux pas if I left not only Marta, but anyone, to go work with someone else. I would not be able to sleep soundly then.” Talk about loyalty—a tennis coach turning down the chance to work with a World Number 1!
So, as Swiatek heads into Wimbledon with zero big wins on her roster this year, there are two ways of looking at the situation, i.e., if we choose not to take Ryszczuk’s diplomatic word for it, 1. Swiatek wishes she wooed Zaniewska harder, or 2. Zaniewska is thanking her stars she doesn’t have to deal with the pressure!
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