"She's constantly stressed right now," Roddick explains Swiatek's struggles
Iga Swiatek has been going through a turbulent period for several months. The Polish player, who will drop to 4th in the WTA rankings for the first time since 2022 after the Rome tournament, hasn’t reached a single final on the tour since her triumph at Roland-Garros last June.
Defending champion in Rome, Swiatek was eliminated in the third round by Danielle Collins (6-1, 7-5). Meanwhile, Aryna Sabalenka has further solidified her No. 1 spot since the start of the year, having already played six finals since January (winning three in Brisbane, Miami, and Madrid, and losing three in Melbourne, Indian Wells, and Stuttgart).
With nearly a 4,000-point lead over Coco Gauff, the Belarusian is well-positioned to hold onto her top ranking for a while. On his podcast, Andy Roddick discussed Swiatek’s rough patch but isn’t worried about her, especially given her age.
At the end of May, the Pole will celebrate her 24th birthday, and the former world No. 1 believes the five-time Grand Slam champion has plenty of time ahead to get back on track.
"It’s really flattering for Iga that people are sounding the alarm for her when she’s the 4th-ranked player in the world. She’s a top seed at every tournament. I also think the doping case really affected her and impacted her results.
She’s complained about how the Polish media treats her. She’s the greatest champion your country has ever had! But the reality is, she’s not playing very well right now, and the match against Coco (Gauff, in the Madrid semifinals, 6-1, 6-1) illustrates that.
I’ve said this before on the podcast, but sometimes our greatest strengths can become our greatest weaknesses. Swiatek had figured all this out by the age of 19. Sabalenka is currently in the form of her career at 27.
But Iga still has four and a half years before she reaches Sabalenka’s age. She’ll have lived another tennis lifetime before she’s Aryna’s current age! It’s weird because she had that focus early on to handle the pressure, and now I think the expectations on her have become hard to bear. Meanwhile, Aryna had those expectations early on and couldn’t overcome them at first.
We saw Aryna arrive at 19, and everyone thought she’d quickly start beating the best players in the world. In the end, it took her time to figure it all out. Now, it feels like the opposite is happening, and Iga is the one in that situation. Right now, it’s easy to say Sabalenka is the player to beat.
I think Swiatek is constantly stressed right now—it seems like every time she wins a match, she’s relieved. She’s given too much weight to the Polish media and social media, where people have opinions on everything.
She’s achieved more than anyone else on tour, and she’s giving credibility to what the media wants. In a way, Iga has fallen into their trap," Roddick elaborated in recent remarks.
