Why Iga Swiatek needs to 'explode' at French Open for her own good: Justine Henin makes ominous prediction

Former World No. 1 Justine Henin has been giving her views on the alarming decline in Iga Swiatek's form in 2025. Swiatek has not won a Grand Slam since last year's French Open, and despite being known as a clay-court specialist, the Pole has failed to make an impression so far this year on the dirt.

Swiatek is a four-time winner at Roland Garros. Still, over the last month, she was beaten in the second round of Rome and Stuttgart by Danielle Collins and Jelena Ostapenko, respectively. She also suffered the indignity of a 1-6, 1-6 loss to Coco Gauff in the semifinal in Madrid. For the World No. 2, such results on her favorite surface are a cause for concern.

Justine Henin has been talking to Eurosport about her assessment of Swiatek's game, as reported by TNT Sports' Instagram page. Henin believes that Swiatek is unhappy at playing so poorly on the clay, and that is affecting her performance:

"It wasn’t a problem until now. Now we are on the clay that she loves so much, approaching the tournament that she has won four times, if there was a time to find herself, it was now. Now, it will take on another level. Against Collins [in Rome], she went through a very complex emotional state. She arrived at the press conference with red eyes. You can feel that it hurts, deep down."

Justine Henin says that Swiatek's mental issues on-court have been setting in over the last 12 months, as she's had to deal with several off-court problems as well. In Henin's view, Swiatek's success has come at a relatively young age, and the attendant pressures have built up. She said:

"She's been going through complex things for a while. I think one of the bases is her very perfectionist side. She wants to do things in a certain way. The status she has had, the domination she has had, especially on clay. We felt at certain moments in her young career how much pressure it was sometimes difficult to bear."

Over the last 12 months, Swiatek has parted company with long-time coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz. She was also handed a one-month ban after a positive test for a banned substance.

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Iga Swiatek has a hugely impressive record in the French Open

Italian Open 2025 - Source: Getty

Iga Swiatek has an astonishing record at Roland Garros. A title-winner in 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024, she's been as dominant a player on the surface as any in history. In fact, in 2024, she became the first player since Justine Henin to win the championship three years in succession. Justine Henin insists that it will be after the year's second Major in France that Swiatek may finally see her season turn:

"All of this puts pressure on her. She's in a vicious circle. It's not surprising to see her struggling. But perhaps this is the moment when it needs to explode, so that things come out, so that she can analyse, understand what is happening to the great perfectionist that she is. We say to ourselves that it's perhaps there, at Roland-Garros, that she'll finally sink before, perhaps, starting again."

Swiatek approaches Paris without a clay-court win in the build-up to the tournament for the first time since 2020. She'll need to conquer her mental demons to have any chance of capturing her sixth Major trophy.