Iga Swiatek Confesses She Needs “A Time of Peace” to Confront New Challenges in Her Career

Iga Swiatek is currently ranked World No.8 following a disappointing end to her clay-court season.

Iga Swiatek Confesses She Needs “A Time of Peace” to Confront New Challenges in Her Career

Iga Swiatek (X/Jimmie48photograph)

Iga Swiatek is currently confronting a new career challenge after dropping out of the top 5 for the first time in over three years. The 24-year-old has also failed to reach a tournament’s final since June 2024. Ahead of her grass-court opener in Bad Homburg, she revealed that she’s seeking peace to adapt to the new troubles in her career.

Swiatek was expected to prove that she was the undisputed clay queen during the red dirt season, but surprisingly she didn’t reach any final. She opened her clay campaign with a quarter-finals exit at the Stuttgart Open. She then suffered a disappointing straight-sets loss against Coco Gauff at the Madrid Open.

Unfortunately, things got worse for the former World No.1 at the Italian Open as she lost to Danielle Collins in the third round. It was the first time that she had failed to reach the round of 16 at a WTA 1000 event since Cincinnati back in 2021. However, the 24-year-old showed some great improvement in her game at the Roland Garros, particularly against Elena Rybakina.

But that was not enough to push her to the final of the clay-court Grand Slam as she fell to World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final. Since then, she has taken a break from the tour as she tries to figure out what’s next, but while doing so, she has dropped from World No.6 to No.8 in the WTA rankings.

She’s currently in Majorca, Spain, where she’s preparing for the grass-court competitions. The Polish star will compete at the WTA 500 tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, which starts on June 22 and ends a day before the Wimbledon Championships kicks off on June 30. During an interview with Polish outlet Sport PL, she opened up about her new approach for the remainder of the season:

A time of peace, where I can take several steps forward and compete against the world’s best without any brakes due to various reasons. I want to participate in more tournaments and maintain the same attitude I had at Roland Garros, implementing what I have adapted to. I would love for that to generate results, but I don’t want to expect anything; I’m going to work on it, that’s for sure.

The last time Swiatek competed at the Bad Homburg Open was in 2023 where she reached the semi-finals after beating Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-2. But, she withdrew before the semi-final tie due to fever and alleged food poisoning.

Iga Swiatek says she’s not thinking about her ranking every day

Iga Swiatek has been known to be a ranking player despite her determination to win titles. But since last October, she dropped from her favorite World No.1 position, while struggling with her game on the court. She dropped further in the rankings after failing to defend any of her clay titles this season.

Iga Swiatek (4)
Iga Swiatek (Image via X/The Tennis Letter)

However, ahead of the grass-court season, Swiatek revealed during the aforementioned interview that she has changed her focus to improving on the court:

I don’t think about it every day, my perspective hasn’t changed: even when I was on top, I always said I wouldn’t focus on the ranking. When I returned in February after the Australian Open, I had a moment of disappointment regarding how I lost my ranking. However, there I chose to focus on the work. I think many girls had gotten used to being higher up, and I did too for a while.

The World No.8 has a chance of going up in the WTA rankings as she has just a few points to defend in this grass-court season. Last year, her only grass-court tournament was at the Wimbledon Championship, where she reached the third round before losing to Yulia Putintseva.

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