Iga Swiatek Admits She Didn’t Expect Immediate Perfection in Stuttgart After Training With Rafael Nadal

Going into the Stuttgart Open, there were expectations that Iga Swiatek would deliver an excellent performance, having trained with Rafael Nadal at his Academy for days. But the Polish star crashed out of the Stuttgart Open in the quarter-finals after losing to Mirra Andreeva. She admits that she didn’t expect a perfect tournament after training at the Rafael Nadal Academy.

Before the clay-court season, Swiatek had not reached a tournament semi-final. She had beaten just one top-20 player and had yet to win a match against a top-10 player. At the Miami Open, she crashed out in the second round after falling to fellow Pole Magda Linette in three sets last month.

The loss led to her parting ways with Wim Fisette after over a year working together. She traveled to Spain, where she met Nadal’s ex-coach, Francisco Roig, at the Rafael Nadal Academy. The 24-year-old trained with Roig after announcing that he would join his team, replacing Fisette, and then trained alongside Nadal.

Several women players were scared that Nadal was going to add something mind-blowing to her game on clay. But that was far from obvious at the Stuttgart Open as she won just one match before Andreeva defeated her 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 after two hours and 36 minutes on the court, reaching the quarter-finals.

The loss continued a run of results below Swiatek’s standards on tour. She’s yet to reach a tournament semi-final or beat a top-10 player. During her post-match press conference in Stuttgart, Swiatek revealed that she didn’t expect to have a perfect result so soon after training with Nadal:

I didn’t expect to play so well in this tournament with the different attitude I’m supposed to have, so there were moments of hesitation, and I think you could see that. But I focus on the fact that there were longer moments of good play, for example from 0-2 in the first set and then at the beginning of the third set. I have to watch and see if I changed anything, what she did, and draw conclusions.

Swiatek had an opportunity to return to the top 3 in the WTA rankings after Coco Gauff crashed out earlier against Karolina Muchova. If Swiatek had won the tournament, she would have gained tangible ranking points that would have helped her reclaim the No.3 position from Gauff at the Madrid Open or Italian Open.

Iga Swiatek says she is struggling with her confidence on the court

Iga Swiatek doesn’t look like a confident player on the court this season. Despite being known for her competitive spirit, she has not performed consistently this year. At the Indian Wells Open, she claimed her first top 20 win against Karolina Muchova but then lost to Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals.

At the Australian Open, she was expected to claim her Career Grand Slam, having reached the semi-finals last year. But at the tournament in January, she crashed out in the quarter-finals after losing to Elena Rybakina. During the aforementioned press conference, she admitted that she’s losing confidence in her game:

Without wins, confidence doesn’t just come from nowhere, so I think it’s a process that needs to be rebuilt, and matches need to be played to make it work. I’m definitely not a person who wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Oh, today I’m going to be confident.’ I need repetitions and good matches to have it, so I’m just going to focus on having more chances in tournaments.

Swiatek will return to the court at the Madrid Open, which starts on April 20. The World No.4 claimed the tournament in 2024, but couldn’t reach the final last year. She didn’t reach a clay tournament final. The Wimbledon champion needs to get back to her best before Roland Garros.

Also Read: Roberto Bautista Agut in Awe of Carlos Alcaraz’s Charismatic Personality: “I Call Him a Being of Light”

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