Iga Swiatek Reveals ‘Main Focus’ for North American Hardcourt Swing as Top 10 Ranking Exit Looms

Iga Swiatek is on the verge of dropping out of the top 10. At present, she is standing in the eighth spot and is just 80 points ahead of World No.9 Elina Svitolina and 186 points ahead of World No.10 Amanda Anisimova.

The reason behind her current ranking is that not only did she fail to defend her Wimbledon title, but she has played just one semifinal this season. Swiatek even crashed out of two tournaments after the opening round (Miami and Bad Homburg). At Wimbledon, her run ended at the hands of Alexandra Eala in the third round.

After enjoying a few days of vacation, Swiatek is back to work. She has already arrived in Toronto for the Canadian Open, the main draw of which starts on August 2. During the draw ceremony, the Pole talked about the plans for the North American hardcourt swing.

Well, you know, obviously I had quite some time to get used to the hard courts, so it’s not so rushed as it was last year, so I already feel like I had a nice two-week period of practice on hard courts. The priority is basically just developing my game, because I started working with my new coach [Francisco Roig] before the clay-court season, and preparing for Roland Garros and then Wimbledon, it’s not like we had such a long time of practice.

Swiatek added Roig to her team before this year’s clay swing, following her split with Belgian coach Wim Fissette, who guided her to that Wimbledon win (she double-bageled Amanda Anisimova in the final).

Now, it was the longest, I would say, so it was nice to use that time with him and my goal is to just implement all that stuff that he wants me to use, because – before clay and before grass – my goal was to just adapt to the surfaces and – on hard courts – I feel like I can focus more on the technical stuff that Francisco wanted me to change, and that’s going to be my main focus for the next weeks.

Iga Swiatek added

Before the clay swing, Swiatek trained at Rafael Nadal‘s academy in Mallorca under Roig as well as the 22-time Grand Slam champion himself. The only time Swiatek reached a semifinal this year was at the Italian Open (eventual champion Elina Svitolina beat her). At Roland Garros, her run ended in the fourth round.

Iga Swiatek will be chasing her first title at the Canadian Open

Last year in the North American events in the lead-up to the US Open, Iga Swiatek suffered a fourth-round exit in Canada, while at the Cincinnati Open, she beat Jasmine Paolini in the final. It was also the last time Swiatek won a Big Title. And it was her 11th WTA 1000 title.

The former World No.1 will be playing at the Canadian Open for the fifth time. She is a one-time semifinalist in the tournament (reached in 2023).

At the US Open, Swiatek won her third of the six Grand Slam titles in 2022. But since then, she has never made it past the quarterfinals. Last year, eventual runner-up Amanda Anisimova beat her in the last eight.

Swiatek won three titles from four finals last year, with the last one coming in Seoul. This season, the only title she has won was with her team at the United Cup in January.

Even though Swiatek is a four-time Roland Garros champion, she has not yet reached a final on clay since defeating Paolini in the 2024 French Open final. In Toronto, the 25-year-old will be chasing her career’s 15th hardcourt title.

Also read: Kim Clijsters Shares Her Take on Jannik Sinner’s Decision to Skip Canadian Open: “Something’s Going on Behind the Scenes”