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Iga Swiatek, the world No. 2 from Poland, was thrashed 6-1 6-1 by Coco Gauff of the United States on Thursday, May 1, in the semifinals of Madrid Open. It marked the first time that the 23-year-old Pole has lost a match to Gauff on clay.
The five-time Grand Slam champion still remains in search of her first singles title in 2025, despite making it deep at various tournaments.
Swiatek also lost the world No. 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus long back and now trails the latter by more than 3000 ranking points. She will have to defend 2000 points at Roland Garros, which means that should she fail to do so by winning her fifth French Open title, she would fall further behind in the race for the top rankings in the world.
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Iga Swiatek has not won a title since changing her coach
Iga Swiatek appointed Wim Fissette as her coach in October 2024. Fissette has an enviable CV and has coached players like Naomi Osaka, Victoria Azarenka and Kim Clijsters in the past.
However, his association with the Pole has not yielded much success so far. Swiatek is yet to win a title under Fissette's guidance and surrendered her No. 1 ranking almost at the same time as his appointment.
While it is difficult to reach a conclusion in such a short period of time, the first six months of the Swiatek-Fissette association have been far from ideal in terms of results on the court for the Pole.
Iga Swiatek suffered the ignominy of a one-month sanction in a doping charge
Iga Swiatek tested positive for a prohibited subtsance, Trimetazidine, in an out-of-competition sample last August. She was handed a one-month sanction as a result, which she underwent after the WTA Finals.
It is possible that the sanction weighed heavily on her mind and is partially responsible for the deterioration and inconsistency in her recent performances. Still, in Swiatek's defense, it must be said that she is at her best on slow, red clay and her defeat in the faster conditions of Madrid should not be blown out of proportion.
She will certainly get a chance to redeem herself in Rome and Paris. However, the manner of her defeat to Gauff must have hurt her fans.
Swiatek's service game seemed weak, she was consistently outhit by Gauff from the baseline and she only worsened things by going forward to the net too often. After the game, she even admitted that nothing worked for her in her match against Gauff.
Winning only a couple of games against an opponent who had never beaten her on the surface will certainly sting for Swiatek. However, the best players pride themselves on their ability to problem solve and come up with solutions. And Swiatek will hope to do exactly that in the coming weeks and months.
