Kim Clijsters thinks she knows what Iga Swiatek is struggling with but admits she has ‘no idea’ how to fix it

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Iga Swiatek hasn’t won a title since the 2025 Korea Open, 297 days ago.

The Pole, once the dominant figure in women’s tennis, now sits eighth in the WTA rankings and looks like a shell of her former self.

She recently lost to Alex Eala in the third round of Wimbledon, failing to defend the title she won a year ago.

Where will Iga Swiatek be ranked at the end of 2026?

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Former world number one Kim Clijsters has now delivered her verdict on Swiatek’s struggles.

Kim Clijsters thinks Iga Swiatek ‘wants it too much’

During the latest episode of the ‘Love All Podcast‘, Clijsters said the following.

“To me, it almost feels like she wants it too much. Where it becomes such an obsession…” she said.

“Maybe I’m completely off, but I feel, with the way that she walks in between the points, the way that she walks to the chair when the game is over. After the match, her first-round win at Wimbledon, you can be the defending champion, but it was almost such a relief that she got through that first round; it just shows how much tension there is on winning, and on trying to win another Slam, I think.

“That’s what it feels like to me, I don’t know, I think it’s really hard when you’re under that kind of pressure, that she puts on herself, there is, obviously, an expectation from the outside world, but I think a lot of it, she just puts on herself, because she has been so great, and she has been dominant. But I think there has been an intensity that has crawled into her system and her body.

“When she plays, I never feel like she is comfortable, confident, it’s like she is pushing, ‘I’ve got to try harder, I’ve got to move my feet faster’.

“It’s not always the most efficient way, or the most flowy, easy-going way, which I feel she had a little bit more when she was dominating.”

Iga Swiatek’s 2026 results

• United Cup – Winner
• Australian Open – Quarter-final
• Qatar Open – Quarter-final
• Indian Wells – Quarter-final
• Miami Open – Second round
• Stuttgart Open – Quarter-final
• Madrid Open – Third round
• Italian Open – Semi-final
• French Open – Fourth round
• Bad Homburg Open – Second round
• Wimbledon – Third round

Clijsters’ co-host, Blair Henley, then asked her how Swiatek can work her way out of this negative cycle.

“Well, that’s very, very hard. Because I also think it is a little bit of her personality, she’s super hard-working, she wants to play and get better all of the time. People think work hard, play hard, but sometimes it becomes a little bit too much,” said Clijsters.

“You just have to work smarter, I don’t know what the best way to get out of it is, you can talk to yourself, put less pressure on yourself, take breaks and have fun and try to have fun, but it’s mostly what goes on between the two ears.

“If that focus is there on trying to achieve, and she is competitive, of course, every player in the draw wants to win, and when you’ve been winning Slams like she has, that’s obviously her goal every time, because she knows, when she plays well, she should be able to, or she can beat everybody.

Official WTA Rankings

“So it’s really hard to figure out how to slow it down.

“Slowing it down doesn’t mean slowing down the speed of her arm or her footwork, but it’s in between the points, a calmness.

“When you look at [Linda] Noskova, she’s super intense from the moment she starts bouncing the ball for her serve, from the moment that she’s standing ready for the return, there is an intensity and aggressiveness.

“But there’s such a calmness in between the points and between the changeovers that I feel like Iga, at the moment, doesn’t have.

“What is the way to get that better? I don’t know, I have no idea.”

Many believed Swiatek’s problems stemmed from her coach, but results haven’t improved since she replaced Wim Fissette with Francisco Roig.

Unless she plans to make another coaching change, Swiatek will need to use all of her and Roig’s experience to begin her journey back to the top of women’s tennis.

Kim Clijsters comments on Aryna Sabalenka’s recent poor run of form

Swiatek isn’t the only big name to have struggled recently, as her former rival, and world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, failed to impress during the clay and grass-court seasons.

The Belarusian was on top of the world just a few short months ago, completing the Sunshine Double, but hasn’t won a title since.

Aryna Sabalenka’s record since the Miami Open

• Madrid Open – Quarter-final
• Italian Open – Third round
• French Open – Quarter-final
• Berlin Open – Semi-final
• Wimbledon – Fourth round

Clijsters has now shared her theory on what’s happened to Sabalenka.

“I just feel on these two surfaces, and maybe, for me, it was a little bit similar back in the day, I just felt like the movement, where she’s so good on the hard courts, if she gets pulled out wide, she pushes off, she comes back, she’s able to, in a defensive situation, create so much power still, and counter. She is not able to do that consistently, especially on a clay court, but also on a grass court,” she said.

“I think in her head, she has to be a little bit cautious and play with caution, I don’t think that’s her personality and her game style.

“Just hitting the ball hard, the serve… I noticed in the first couple of rounds she tried to use some slices, come in a little bit more, but it just wasn’t consistently good enough.

“Whereas on hard, the intensity that she has and the power that her ground shots create on the other side of the net is non-stop, shot after shot, and she’s just not able to create that on the clay and on the grass.”

Luckily for Sabalenka, she won’t have to play any more grass or clay-court tournaments this year.

She will make her return to hard-court tennis at the Canadian Open later this month.