Iga Swiatek blames the WTA calendar for recent upsets on the tour

Coming off a doping case-incurred pause towards the end of last season, Iga Swiatek would have hoped for a better start to her new season on the tour. However, four tournaments into the ongoing year, including a Grand Slam event, Swiatek has been collecting shock after shock. Currently ranked second in the WTA Rankings, Swiatek's last title victory on the tour came at Roland Garros in 2024. Still on the lookout for a title in the new season, Swiatek appeared rather baffled after she was ousted from the Dubai Championship with a quarter-final defeat against Mirra Andreeva.

Unable to complete her title quest, Iga Swiatek blames lack of practice for her latest defeat

Iga Swiatek missed the Asian swing of the WTA Tour last season in what was later revealed to be a suspension due to a doping case. The Pole returned to the tour through the WTA Finals in Riyadh in an attempt to reclaim her World No. 1 position from Aryna Sabalenka. However, Coco Gauff, 2-11 against Swiatek till then, scripted an upset to send the Pole packing in Riyadh. The one week remaining in her ban was covered during the off-season by Swiatek. Leaving the case behind, the Pole started the new season at the United Cup, where she led Poland to the final. However, Coco Gauff repeated her WTA Finals form against Swiatek to notch her fourth victory over the higher-ranked opponent.

Swiatek then moved her campaign to the Australian Open, where she appeared dominant in the initial rounds. However, the Pole lost her semi-final clash to the resurgent Madison Keys, who went on to win the title. Three weeks after the semi-final, Swiatek played next at the Qatar Open, where again, the Pole started off impressively. However, she came across a tough draw in the semi-final as the unseeded Jelena Ostapenko placed herself against Swiatek. Swiatek, a Roland Garros master with five Grand Slam titles in total, had never won a match against the Latvian. The 4-0 head-to-head record only improved as Ostapenko beat Swiatek 6-3, 6-1 to enter the final in Doha.

Swiatek then moved her campaign to Dubai, where she earned a bye to the Round of 32. The story remained the same for the Pole as she collected victories against Victoria Azarenka and Dayana Yastremska. However, she lost the quarter-final draw against the 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 6-3. After Aryna Sabalenka’s loss to Clara Tauson in the Round of 16 and Coco Gauff's first-round exit, Elena Rybakina remains the only top seed in the draw. The Kazakh player, embroiled in a controversy with the WTA over the suspension of her coach Stefano Vukov, will face Andreeva in the semi-final now.

Iga Swiatek, meanwhile, came down heavily on the WTA schedule following her quarter-final defeat against Andreeva, who became the youngest-ever semi-final contender in Dubai. In explaining the shock upsets noted lately on the tour, including the defeats of Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, Swiatek pointed to the schedule as a crucial factor. The Pole noted that players transition between continents, courts, and balls within a span of a week. Such a heavy schedule is bound to affect the consistency of competitors, according to Swiatek.

"For sure it's a calendar thing. Like, we're not going to be able to be consistent for many years playing week by week," Swiatek said. "But I feel like for sure the calendar is not helping. Again, like, we need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls. Yeah, it's not easy," she added.

The World No. 2, in a clear stance, asserted that her defeat against Andreeva was triggered by a lack of practice. Clearly miffed by the ouster at the hands of Andreeva, Swiatek noted that the busy schedule didn't allow her to practice as she transitioned between tournaments.

“There are people saying that, ‘Oh, I don't have to play so many tournaments, but…the fact is that we have so many mandatory tournaments that we literally need to show up, and we don't have time to work on stuff or live peacefully, because from one tournament we're going straight to another,” she said. “Honestly, I'm not that direct usually, but I would blame this performance on the lack of practice before because I didn't have time," she added.