Iga Swiatek believes she is already benefiting from recent changes made to her team with the addition of Rafael Nadal’s former coach.
The world No.2 has paired up with Francisco Roig after opting to end her partnership with Wim Fissette following the Miami Open. Roig is known best for his lengthy collaboration with the king of clay, but he has also worked with various other players on the Tour. These include Emma Raducanu and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
The two began their collaboration at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, where they spent one and a half weeks training. Swiatek has also trained at the venue before in 2018 and 2022, but last year stayed in her native Poland during this time of the season.
“I feel like I have a clarity of what to do on the clay court, and I totally agree with what Francisco wants to show me,” the world No.4 said after beating Laura Siegemund 6-2, 6-3, in the first round of the Stuttgart Open.
“I need to have space to have some matches and try things out and see how it works.”
Swiatek enters this week having reached the quarter-finals in three out of her last four tournaments played. The exception was Miami, where she suffered a shock opening match loss to Magda Linette. Against top 10 opposition, she has lost five out of her last six matches played since November.
It is this record against the top names that is one of the most alarming aspects Swiatek is currently facing. However, she hopes to address this with the help of a new perspective given to her by Roig.
“Sometimes I kind of had my old habits in some solutions on the court. But I feel like I remembered well what I had in mind during practices, and I was ready to do that on the court,” she explained.
“I just practiced for 10 days with Francisco, you can’t expect it’s all going to be there automatically.
“I need matches to just get that automatic, but I’m pretty happy with what I had in my head (during her first round match in Stuttgart) and the ideas that I wanted to do.”
Regarding adjustments in her game, the 24-year-old has focused on refining her service motion and adopting a different approach to returning the ball by slowing down rallies. Swiatek believes the key is trusting her ‘solid game.’
“It’s not the first time I’m doing changes on my serve, and I’m going to be patient about it.” She stated.
In Stuttgart, Swiatek could next play Mirra Andreeva, who defeated 2025 champion Jelena Ostapenko in three sets. However, Andreeva must first get past American qualifier Alycia Parks to book the showdown.
