Iga Swiatek will know that today’s performance wasn’t nearly at the level she will hope to reach throughout the 2026 season.
However, over the last year or so, there has been little consistent quality from the Polish star at all really.
Her win at Wimbledon was completely stunning and deserves so much praise. The fact that she followed that up with the title in Cincinnati marked an impressive run too.
But before that, she was enduring a title drought that extended over 13 months, which emphasises just how uncharacteristically unsuccessful the six-time Grand Slam champion had been.
Who is your money on?
Speaking after this recent defeat to Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open, Iga Swiatek has already pointed out where she knows she needs to improve.
Iga Swiatek already knows where she needs to improve
Asked to sum up the match, her first response at the press conference was a confident one, insisting: “I know what I need to improve, and it’s kind of the same stuff that I had in my mind before the tournament as well. So there’s no, like, breakthrough lesson.”
Swiatek continued: “I’m just going to keep doing my job, and hopefully the next tournament I’ll get some stuff, you know, settled in terms of what I wanted to do with my game.”
One reporter sought to understand what exactly the 24-year-old had in mind, to which she replied: “Well, some technical stuff, like, that have been pretty tough for me to have a smooth, you know, process in terms of changing them. I see Carlos, for example, changing his serve every year (laughter). For me, it’s one little thing takes much longer time.
“There are some stuff on the serve that I want to change, and I already changed that in the pre-season, but then, you know, matches come, and you don’t have that much time to, like, think about this. You don’t want to think about these kind of details when you play.
“So then it comes back to the old patterns, you know. So basically, yeah, I’ll focus on that. I’ll see from there, because for sure, there are some stuff that I can change to play better, and I’ll try to do that in next weeks and months.”
In that same press conference, Swiatek agreed with the issue Coco Gauff had with the Australian Open.
Iga Swiatek’s search for the career Grand Slam goes on
Having won Wimbledon last year against all the odds, this Australian Open marked the first opportunity of Swiatek’s career to complete the career Grand Slam.
And whilst a run to the quarter-final is no mean feat, it still marks an underperformance compared to last year’s semi-final.
Who is going to win the women’s Australian Open?
Fortunately, with time on her side, Swiatek will have so many more opportunities to accomplish this feat.
The fact that she knows what needs to be done to improve is a good sign for the likelihood of that happening in the coming years too.
