LONDON: Iga Swiatek admits her tennis on the grass is a work in progress but the Pole is confident she is heading in the right direction.
The five-time Grand Slam champion is hoping to turn her fortunes around at Wimbledon, which is her worst-performing major in terms of matches won. Swiatek has won 11 matches at The All England Club compared to 40 at the French Open. She has only reached the quarter-finals stage once before, which was in 2023.
However, the world No.4 recently broke new ground by reaching her first WTA Final on grass in Bad Homburg, Germany. At the tournament, she defeated 2024 Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini before losing in the final to Jessica Pegula.
“Probably so far it’s the best one that I’ve had,” Swiatek said of her Wimbledon preparations on Sunday.
“I had a really great time in Bad Homburg and enjoyed it. Also having more time to practice before on grass really helped. I feel that I have a little bit more skills.”
So is Swiatek now an expert on the grass? Well, not really and the tennis star herself is the first to admit that.
“I wouldn’t say suddenly everything is perfect because it’s still a difficult surface. It’s still tricky,” she explained.
“Having more years of experience and then you have more time to just develop as a player and have more days. I didn’t stay home. I went to Mallorca to practice. It gave me an opportunity to work on some movement and stepping to the ball a little bit differently than on clay.
“I just went for it in Bad Homburg, and it really worked. I’ll continue that.”
Frustrations with the calendar
Wimbledon will be Swiatek’s 11th tournament of 2025. She has played 46 WTA matches so far this season, winning 35 of them. She has previously hit out at the congested Tour schedule which usually starts in January and ends in November.
Speaking about scheduling once again on Sunday, Swiatek describes it as a system that players are trapped in due to mandatory requirements to play certain events. Some other players, as well as the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), have also voiced concerns in recent times.
“The scheduling is super intense, it’s too intense. There’s no point for us to play over 20 tournaments in a year,” Swiatek argues.
“Sometimes we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we’re going to get a zero in the ranking.
“I think these kind of obligations and the rules about mandatory tournaments just put pressure on us… I think people would still watch tennis, maybe even more, if we played less tournaments. The quality would be better.”
Currently, up to 21 events are classed as mandatory providing players reach certain requirements. They include all four Grand Slams, 10 WTA 1000s, six WTA 500’s and the WTA Finals if a player qualifies.
Swiatek will play Polina Kudermetova in her opening match at Wimbledon.
