It’s been a tumultuous time for Iga Swiatek. After much deliberation, she recently fired coach Wim Fissette and is struggling with the door open for 2026, having failed to win a title in the first three months of the season.
With the clay court season upon us and all the pressure that comes with it, all eyes will be on Swiatek to see if she can rediscover the form that made her one of the greatest clay court forces in the history of women’s tennis.
In a wide-ranging interview conducted by Radosław Leniarski for Polish sports publication Sport.pl, Swiatek opened up about her dream coach and how she sees her game developing in the short term, answering questions about her relationship with Rafael Nadal and the recent criticism that Daria Abramowicz, a key member of her team, has faced.
“I want to get back to a solid base and feel like a wall on the court again – not making mistakes and forcing my opponent to make mistakes. I’ve always felt that way. That’s my strength.”
Iga Swiatek via sport.pl
Here are some highlights from the interview with the six-time Grand Slam champion:
The quote has been translated from Polish to English by Twitter user @LukasFCB321
What Iga wants from herself and her tennis
“I want to get back to solid ground and feel like a wall on the court again – not making mistakes and forcing my opponent to make mistakes. I’ve always felt that way. That’s my strength – I put pressure on the court and that gives me the upper hand. I feel like tennis gives me the most fun when I’m solid. When I’m not solid, I take unnecessary risks and make more mistakes.
“I want to get back to that solidity. But it takes work on the pitch. If someone doesn’t feel comfortable on the pitch, they should work harder. There are also moments when everything starts to click – that’s when you can introduce new elements and learn new skills.
“I want to have more variety in my game and sometimes take advantage of what I do when I train for games – having the courage to make those decisions. But right now, I’m mainly focused on the first part: working hard and being determined.”
What does the ideal coach look like?
“The ideal coach should have a very high skill set – an ‘eye’ for the game. An intuition for the short-term and long-term needs of the players. They must be able to make good decisions: when to introduce new shots or drills, when to start changing the game, and when to structure the game to a player’s strengths.
“Personality-wise, they should understand and have good communication skills because they need to be the leader of the team. They have to bring together the work of everyone involved and make it all work together. It also has to be someone you enjoy spending time with because the tournament is long and there is quite a bit of downtime. Finding the right balance between all of that is key.”
What do you think of the criticism of her psychological coach?
Online critics have long complained that Daria Abramovich had too much control over Swiatek’s career. She hit back at those critics, saying she was responsible for everything that happened within the team, before saying the following words of support for Abramovich.
“I decide who I work with. Honestly, most of the negative things I see — and I try not to read them, but some things reach my ears — are just fake news and theories made up for the sake of sensationalism,” she said.
“The article about Dalia – for many years my success on the court was attributed to her because, among other things, it was down to mental strength, and now when my form and results dropped, suddenly she was the culprit.”
Did Nadal play a role in her coaching search?
Some have speculated that Swiatek will prepare for the clay court season at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, with other rumors linking her with Francisco Roig as a possible next coach. We don’t know if this is true. When asked about a possible connection with Nadal during a transitional period in her career, Swiatek had this to say:
“As we all know, Rafa is my idol and basically the only person I saw playing tennis as a kid. He was also kind enough to talk to me a few times during his career and give me advice. If I needed help or had a problem to solve, he was the person I could turn to.
“Getting help from someone with experience – essentially the best, GOAT – is obviously a great opportunity and I’ll take it whenever possible. Rafa is very open. He’s a great guy. It’s a huge privilege for me that I have his phone number and can contact him. But honestly, did he help me [with the coach choice] Regardless, I wanted to keep it a secret because he was part of the story. I don’t want to put him in an awkward situation. “
