Iga Swiatek Discusses Split With Former Coach Before Hiring Fissette
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Iga Swiatek's split with longtime coach Tomasz Wiktorowksi was among the most surprising moments of 2024. The four-time French Open champion has now revealed if she instigated the decision.
Swiatek started working with Wiktorowski before the 2022 season. Under his guidance, the 23-year-old took the next step and became a dominant force on the WTA Tour.
The Pole reached world No. 1 for the first time in April 2022, overtaking Ashleigh Barty, who had retired the previous month. Swiatek managed an incredible 37-match winning streak in 2022 and won the French Open and US Open.
Those achievements led to Swiatek being named the WTA Player of the Year for 2022. She won two more French Opens, several Masters 1000 titles, and dominated the No. 1 ranking during the rest of her time with Wiktorowski.
Their success meant Swiatek's announcement in October about splitting with Wiktorowksi caused widespread shock. Last year's Indian Wells Open champion warmly thanked Wiktorowski for everything he had done for her.
Swiatek appointed Naomi Osaka's former coach, Wim Fissette, her new coach shortly afterward. The Belgian helped Osaka to win two Grand Slams in their first spell together, but they could not replicate that success last year.
Fissette also coached Kim Clijsters during two of her US Open titles and worked with Angelique Kerber when the German won the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, beating Serena Williams in the final.
Swiatek and Fissette have only had two WTA tournaments together so far. Despite winning two out of three matches, the five-time Grand Slam champion failed to get out of her WTA Finals group.
Their first event of the 2025 season was the United Cup. Swiatek played a pivotal role in Team Poland's reaching back-to-back finals. However, the Poles finished as runners-up again, this time to Team USA. Swiatek lost her singles match to Coco Gauff in the final.
In an appearance on Caroline Garcia's podcast, the Tennis Insider Club, Swiatek revealed that splitting with Wiktorowski was a mutual decision, and she is now focused on trying to learn something new with Fissette.
"Honestly, it was a mutual kind of a thing. I was not planning to change coaches this season, but we came to this situation where we had to, you know, so now I’m working with Wim (Fissette) and it’s exciting, but for sure, I have to see how my tennis is going to evolve in the next year."
"I have a new coach to learn something new because it’s also not easy to do that when you know that you have been playing so well for the last few years. If you are not going to evolve in tennis, other girls are going to come after you and suddenly you will wake up outside the top 50 or something."
However, Swiatek also stressed that she and Fissette were not trying to change her game radically. The pair hopes to make improvements without fundamentally altering what has worked so well in the past.
"I am trying to be open-minded but we are not trying to change a lot because there’s no need to. All these things we work on, I wanted to work on before, it’s just a little bit different approach. You never know what’s going to work or not, you just need to trust the process."
