It isn’t exactly a secret that 2025 has not been Iga Swiatek’s year. She hasn’t found herself in a tour final of any level since last year’s Roland-Garros, never mind taking home a title. And, with a botched clay season in which she made only one semifinal, she openly expressed that she didn’t like her odds of defending her title in Paris.
Obviously, it would be stupid to expect a lot because I’m not able to play my game right now,” Swiatek said after losing to Danielle Collins in the third round of Rome, where she was the defending champion. “For sure, I’m doing something wrong, so I need to just regroup and change some stuff. I heard some ideas from the team, so I’ll just try to do that in next weeks.”
She must have changed some things, because some things have changed in Paris.
In her first three rounds at Roland-Garros, it was classic Swiatek. Her Rafa-like forehand returned, launching balls with a high arc and heavy topspin that got up and away from her opponents, rendering them defenseless. She was back to relentlessly dictating points, jumping on any weak reply from her opponents. Perhaps most importantly, her expression and posture were those of a fighter, instead of different shades of panic. All of it led to convincing straight set wins.
But the real test came in the fourth round, facing Elena Rybakina, who quickly jumped to a 5-0 lead before Swiatek could get on the scoreboard. For those first five games, Iga was outmatched by the archetype that is her constant Achilles’ heel. Hard, flat hitters who hug the baseline and rush Iga’s shots have done her in before. And into the second set, it seemed like that would happen again.
Slowly, Swiatek clawed her way into the match with some scrappy, if ugly, tennis. She used her legs more to hang in rallies longer, forcing Rybakina to hit more balls and drawing some errors. But that strategy also allowed Swiatek to get the ball out of Rybakina’s strike zone, which led to opportunities to smack some of her own winners.
By the time she won, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, one thing became incredibly clear: this was precisely the type of win against precisely this type of player Swiatek needed going into the second week of Roland-Garros.
“I think I needed that kind of win to feel these feelings that I’m able to win under pressure, and even if it’s not going the right way, you know, still turn the match around to win it,” Swiatek said. “For sure, it’s a great confirmation for me...I’m happy that I fought, and I also problem-solved on court.”
Swiatek may or may not win Roland-Garros this year. But it’s hard to imagine seeing the kind of tennis that plagued her earlier in the clay season for the rest of this year’s French Open now that she’s playing her game.
