Swiatek back on familiar ground, and back in business in Rome
History says Iga Swiatek is heading into the sweet spot of her schedule.
She’s played on the red clay in Rome and Paris 10 times since the turn of the century -- and won seven of those titles. She was the winner last year in Rome, taking her third title in four years, and followed it up with her fourth at Roland Garros in five, matching Justin Henin’s epic three-peat of 2005-07.
After a difficult end of the 2024 season when she changed coaches, served a brief drug suspension and lost the No. 1 ranking, Swiatek has been remarkably consistent so far, playing eight tournaments -- and reaching at least the quarterfinals of each.
“For sure, I’m happy with the consistency,” Swiatek told reporters on Monday in Rome. “This is something that I always want. There’s no tournament where I go in and I’m not prepared.
“I feel like I’m the most kind of consistent as I was previous years. But for sure I want to also win some tournaments -- that’s also the goal.”
For Swiatek, the Internazionali d’Italia is a great place to start. She’s won three of the past four titles here and is again off to a terrific start in 2025. On Thursday, Swiatek defeated Italian wildcard Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1, 6-0 in less than one hour.
Swiatek won 28 of 35 service points and did not face a break point. This was her 18th consecutive win in Rome in straight sets and was her ninth 6-0 set at the tournament. Swiatek now has 33 “bagels” in WTA 1000 events, equaling Victoria Azarenka for the most ever.
Next up: The winner of the later match between No. 29 seed Danielle Collins and Elena-Gabriela Ruse in a third-round match on Saturday.
Hard to believe, but Swiatek is looking for her first title since winning last spring in Paris. After reaching the final at the United Cup in Australia, losing to Gauff, Swiatek hasn’t been past the semifinals of an event. Of those eight losses, two each came to Gauff, Mirra Andreeva and Jelena Ostapenko and the others belong to Madison Keys and Alexandra Eala.
Typically, the early season has been an unqualified success for Swiatek. In a span of three years, from 2022-24, she won three times in Doha, twice each in Stuttgart and Indian Wells, as well as in Miami and Madrid.
In Rome, reporters respectfully tried to understand why 2025 has been different. Truth is, Swiatek -- introspective as usual -- herself isn’t quite sure.
“One month you don’t feel good with your forehand, the other with your backhand,” Swiatek said. “You need to just kind of follow with what you feel. I would say it’s different, the changes are different.
“In 2023, I remember I had a lot of, like, anxiety on first part of the season. In 2024, I was kind of only looking at the Olympics. This year I feel like I am struggling a bit more with my perfectionism. I want to for sure focus on being disciplined on the court and making right choices, not the choices that sometimes pop out in my head.”
While the back-to-back losses to the surging Andreeva came in Dubai and Indian Well, where she went on to become champion, the past three were more disappointing. The straight-sets loss to the No. 140-ranked Eala in the Miami quarterfinals was a shocker. The quarterfinal loss in Stuttgart came against Ostapenko, who improved her career mark against Swiatek to 6-0. The 6-1, 6-1 loss to Gauff in the Madrid semifinals was Swiatek’s worst loss in terms of games in six years.
Swiatek, who played three three-set matches in the four before meeting Gauff, patiently, dutifully broke down what went wrong.
“I had trouble focusing,” Swiatek said. “I wasn’t moving well. I think everything kind of built up at one moment. That’s why the score was like that. It's just like one day. You can’t judge everything by it.
“I’m continuing the work that I’ve been doing. I trust the process. We’ll see on the next one.”
She’ll try to channel, Swiatek said, her happiest clay-court memories.
“I have love-and-hate relationship with my perfectionism,” Swiatek said. “Sometimes I’m on court, I feel like I’m going to play this loopy forehand there, my great backhand there. I kind of assume it’s going to go in, and then I make mistakes. It’s not the same, I’m confused.
“I feel like I’m doing good results. I'm close to doing a little bit more. I just need to just push a little bit more and not let my thoughts go around like this. I’m working on that, and we'll see how it’s going to end.”
