Poland won their first United Cup title on Sunday following a 2-1 victory against Switzerland in the final.
The Polish team, led by Iga Swiatek and an invigorated Hubert Hurkacz, secured the title following victory in the deciding mixed doubles rubber.
However, despite victory on Sunday, Iga Swiatek will be hoping she can improve her game ahead of the 2026 Australian Open following two poor results.
The Polish star struggled to impose her will throughout the event, labouring to a three-set win against German youngster Eva Lys, and losing to Coco Gauff and Belinda Bencic in her final two matches.
Gauff defeated Swiatek 6-4, 6-2 in the semi-finals, while Bencic produced an emphatic display to beat the Polish star 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.
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Credit: Sofascore
Swiatek, who is attempting to complete the career Grand Slam at the Australian Open, may need to fix one particular area of her game if she is to win the title in Melbourne.
Catherine Whitaker says Iga Swiatek’s risk-taking during matches is ‘maddening’
“It’s not the fact of her [Swiatek] losing to Bencic and Gauff playing out of their minds.” Catherine Whitaker said on The Tennis Podcast.
“It’s the pattern of these defeats. I think, and it’s a continuation of a pattern that we saw last year, and we were wary about being too alarmist about the defeats that seemed to… these matches that seemed to get away from Swiatek and crumble before her and our eyes, because she won Wimbledon last year.
Whitaker, a notable journalist and pundit within the tennis community, identified Swiatek’s ‘maddening’ tendency during high-stakes encounters.
She continued: “As we discussed in all of our various review shows, we think she would have signed for last season at the start of it.
“It was a good season for Iga Swiatek, and yet there was this slightly dark underbelly of defeats that looked like this, where once the match got away from her, once her opponent gets her teeth into the match, she starts malfunctioning, and appears to resort to the default of hitting harder and taking more and more risk; the opposite of what we understand that her project is with Wim Fissette.
“And it’s becoming pretty maddening to watch, because it’s the definition of madness: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, is the proverbial definition of madness and yet it feels like this is what we’re watching in these types of matches.
“She still has matches where she looks absolutely awesome throughout and she’s cleaning really great players. But these matches are happening and Swiatek wants to be a Grand Slam champion and this is a problem, Matt.”
Matt Roberts, a fellow tennis journalist and pundit, continued the discussion: “It is a problem and you use that word – the ‘pattern’ now is that it feels like when Swiatek goes up against fellow top players, more often than not at the moment, she’s not winning those matches.
“And she always used to have dominant records over fellow top players but that is something that has really changed in the last year or so.
“And I think it is because of what you described, in terms of these players are good enough now to be able to push her and make it stressful and create pressure and in those moments Swiatek, caught between playing styles, is going down the route of hitting harder and harder and is doing it in quite a hectic manner, and losing control of her game.
“And we’ve seen it on clay last year even, we’ve seen it a lot on the hard courts. Oddly the outlier now in terms of the last year or so, was Wimbledon.
“And I do think there was something to be said there for a tournament where it did feel like the pressure was off quite a lot more. I know she faced opponents there in the latter stages who have since beaten her and proved to be in her category.
“Wasn’t like she had a kind draw whatsoever with Bencic and Ansimova there at the end, but neither of those players really showed up in those matches to anything like their best due to injury for Bencic and I just think total nerves for Anisimova in that final.
“But it is a problem for Swiatek now, increasingly so. And I don’t know how much time you give it. She’s been with Wim Fissette for quite a while now and these things don’t seem to be improving and I think the other thing that happened during Wimbledon was that she had a particularly good serving tournament and she carried that on in Cincinnati and that summer spell she served well.
“Unfortunately her serve seems to have dropped off a cliff again and it makes her extremely vulnerable and allows these other players to get into the match and be able to attack that shot, and that creates the stress.
“So from a technical point of view, I really think the serve needs to improve and get back to where it was through the summer last year, and that would help alleviate some of the stress at times, like it did at Wimbledon and Cincinnati.
Do you think women should play best-of-five set matches?
“But I do think the issue runs deeper than that and trying to manage these moments of stress better is a huge task for Iga Swiatek right now and it feels like the loss of the field – I’m talking about the other best players in the world have caught up to Iga Swiatek over the last year or so.
“The gap between Swiatek and Sabalenka has grown. Sabalenka has sort of moved ahead and the other players have slightly caught up to Iga Swiatek. Not enough over the course of a season to counter her genuinely phenomenal consistency across all tournaments; that’s why she’s still the number two in the world.
“But in a lot individual matches now, you feel like there are a lot more players who can beat Iga Swiatek than there were a couple of years ago, and it makes things tough for her.”
Coco Gauff’s strength against Iga Swiatek
Whitaker continued the discussion, taking note of Coco Gauff’s victory against Swiatek in the United Cup semi-finals.
Gauff, the world number four, defeated Swiatek 6-4, 6-2 in Sydney.
Whitaker said: “The Gauff match up I feel particularly sheds a light on the problem with Iga Swiatek, because Gauff is loose in that matchup in a way she doesn’t seem to be a lot… a lot of her serving and forehand issues do seem to kind of miraculously evaporate when she’s on the court with Swiatek now.
“And Gauff knows if she can hang in the rallies long enough, Swiatek will make a mistake; and nobody hangs in a rally better than Coco Gauff. She makes balls nobody else can make. I reckon she makes 25 per cent more balls than pretty much anybody else in the WTA; it’s that ridiculous.
“And yeah she’s like ‘okay, I’ll rest on my positives and you’re going to cough up enough errors for me to do this thing and I’m comfortable in that dynamic.’ It’s slightly alarming to watch.
Roberts added: “It’s eight sets in a row Gauff has won against Swiatek, four matches in a row, all of them straight sets. A total turnaround of that head-to-head.”
Between 2021 and 2023, Iga Swiatek won her first seven matches against Coco Gauff. Swiatek first defeated Gauff at the 2021 Italian Open and won her seventh consecutive match at the 2023 French Open.
Gauff ended the streak at the 2023 Cincinnati Open, defeating Swiatek 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.
Swiatek then went on a four-match win streak against Gauff, last defeating the American at the 2024 French Open.
Since then, Gauff has dominated the match up, winning four consecutive matches without dropping a set.
In the past two years, Gauff has beaten Swiatek at the 2024 WTA Finals, 2025 United Cup, 2025 Madrid Open and 2026 United Cup.
