Iga Swiatek continues to struggle to find relative form after her disappointing Wimbledon title defence.
Swiatek won Wimbledon for the first time last year, but she has not been past the quarter-finals of any major tournament since then.
The six-time Grand Slam champion’s latest disappointment came in the third round of Wimbledon, where Swiatek was beaten by Alexandra Eala.
When reacting to Swiatek’s Wimbledon exit, Rennae Stubbs, who has been coaching Serena Williams for her comeback, has admitted her concerns for the former world number one.
Rennae Stubbs says lots of questions need to be asked of Iga Swiatek
When discussing Swiatek in the latest edition of the ‘Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast‘, the six-time Grand Slam doubles champion was baffled by what she had seen from her against Eala, drawing comparisons to Williams.
Stubbs then claimed that questions need to be asked of both Swiatek and her coaching team ahead of the US Open hard court swing.
“I want to address Iga. Even on set point in the first set she had a completely open court, on the forehand, which she would normally have just ripped for a winner two or three years ago, and she missed it by about 20 feet, to give the first set away,” said Stubbs.
“It’s points like that when you just go what is going on? That you as one of the best players over the last six or seven years, that you miss a shot that badly on such a big point against someone so inexperienced as Alex Eala.
“That is where you lockdown and don’t miss. Going back to even Serena playing when she was down match point. What does she do? Huge first serve.
“You lock back into the things you know you can do well. But for Iga that she can’t even make a basic open court forehand on a huge point just indicates to me that there is so much uncertainty in her game and how she is feeling out there.
“There is going to be a lot of questions which need to be asked of her and her team going forward, going on to a surface which she likes which is hard court, but it’s still not as comfortable as clay and we saw what happened there.”
Where will Iga Swiatek be ranked at the end of 2026?
What will Iga Swiatek’s ranking be after Wimbledon?
Swiatek has been a dominant and consistent top player on the WTA Tour in recent years, including being world number one for a combined 125 weeks.
However, after losing in the third round for her Wimbledon title defence, Swiatek will drop 1870 points and is subsequently confirmed to fall down to at least world number six.
Swiatek could drop even further based on other results at Wimbledon, but perhaps the biggest concern should be her position in the race to the WTA Finals.
The race to the WTA Finals only tracks ranking points earned in 2026, and essentially indicates where players are forecast to be ranked at the end of the year.
Swiatek is currently down at 12th in the race to the WTA Finals, which would be her lowest ranking in five years.
This also means that unless Swiatek has an upturn in form, she will not qualify for the WTA Finals, which will be held at Indian Wells this year, for the first time since 2019, when she was just 18 years old.
