It is your favorite season. Spring, finally sand places again. Iga Swiatek is actually really good at it. In recent years she has been by far the best of all. But in the spring of 2025 there is nothing left.
The appearance of the former clay court dominator Iga Swiatek at Campo Centrale, the largest place in the tennis facility in Rome, ended on Saturday with a scene that was made for the past few weeks: a simple mistake with the backhand, and it was out. Lost in two sentences against the American Danielle Collins, which was placed in position 29. Again no final. It was Swiatek’s third defeat in the third tournament on sand this year. For comparison: Last year she marched through the tournaments of Madrid, Rome and Paris with a flawless record of 19 wins and zero defeats and cleared all three titles.
Well, in spring 2025, the construction sites of the 23-year-old Polish can hardly be counted on and outside the square. First of all, there are the unusual weaknesses in their game: the forehand, in recent years, on sand, all of their outstanding blow, is currently a single wobble discipline. The footwork, once outstanding on the women’s tour, is cramped and brings her no more advantages. The surcharge, never her greatest strength, is now even easier to return.
Really panic
In addition, there are the construction sites outside the square. Since the French Open in June 2024, the former world ranking listen has not been able to win a tournament. The devastating bursts of her gold dream in the semi -finals at the Olympic Games in Paris still gnaws at her self -confidence today. In autumn, she announced the cooperation with her previous success coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and won the Belgian Wim Fissette as a new coach. Fissette is considered a better maker who, among other things, Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka to Grand-Slam titles. So far nothing has been brought, no tournament victory, not even a final.
The thing that should have shaken the self -image of Swiatek the most is the positive doping test in the fun August, which resulted in a four -week lock. Since then, the Polish has been even more dipped on the square than it was already. It seems as if after the positive test, she literally had to prove that she is the best player in the world. Swiatek looks inhibited. Andrea Petkovic, ex-professional player and TV expert, misses the lightness in the game of the former number 1: “You can see the stress. At the moment it looks like she doesn’t like to stand on the pitch. Otherwise she has always been a serious person on the pitch, but at the moment I have the feeling that there is really panic.”
Tears on the face
The stress is obvious on the square. The corners of the mouth twitch after every rallies, even during the break breaks during the change of sides, it does not come to rest, looks restless, a bundle of nerves. A week ago, during the defeat against Coco Gauff in Madrid, she hid her face under a towel in the face of the clear defeat. When she took the towel again, tears of disappointment, perhaps tears of the anger, perhaps ran over her face. Afterwards it became known that her grandfather had died before the tournament started. She had flown home between the tournaments of Stuttgart and Madrid. Private strokes of fate join the sporting situation.
Iga Swiatek himself had been calm before the tournament start in Rome: “I lost some matches in the quarter or semi-finals, but these were still good results. I am very hard on the pitch, but when I change perspective away from the square, I am still satisfied with my consistency.” There was nothing left of the serenity in the press conference on the press conference in the 3rd round on the tennis court.
The Swiatek crisis is not hidden from her colleagues either. After her defeat in Madrid, her Casper Ruud jumped. Ruud, who later won the tournament among the men, wrote on “X”: “Hey iga, head up! How millions of people I love to see you playing. It wasn’t your day today, but you inspire so many people and you will come back stronger!” After his tournament victory in Madrid, Ruud had talked about mental problems in the past few months.
No favorite with the French Open
Andrea Petkovic is still sure that Swiatek can quickly find her game again after a disappointing first half of the year: “I think you would do it well to take a little break, switch off a bit and then hopefully to regain the joy of tennis and work.
Swiatek will not start as a top favorite at the French Open, a feeling that is unknown to her. She had developed a status at Bois de Boulogne in recent years, which was almost comparable to Rafael Nadal’s aura in its best days. The feeling that she is invincible on the red ash in Paris. She won this tournament four times. If she would like to win a fifth in 2025, she has to find it back to lightness. It seems somewhat buried in the middle of the entire construction sites.