Team Poland fell agonizingly short of reaching the final of the Billie Jean King Cup despite Iga Swiatek's best efforts. The world No. 2 was consoled after missing out on the final.
Swiatek did not initially plan to compete at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Malaga. The four-time French Open champion has had a long season and was going to give herself an extra week off.
However, some unexpected developments in her team might have influenced the 23-year-old's decision to play at the team event. Swiatek parted ways with her longtime coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, a few weeks after the US Open.
Naomi Osaka's former coach, Wim Fissette, was hired as Swiatek's new coach. Their first tournament together was at the WTA Finals. By that point, she had not played at a tournament in almost two months.
Swiatek won two round-robin matches at the WTA Finals, her only loss coming against the eventual champion Coco Gauff. Unfortunately for the former world No. 1, she became just the fourth player in 20 years not to qualify for the semifinal with two wins.
Wanting to get more match practice with Fissette as her coach may have led Swiatek to decide to play in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, which significantly improved Team Poland's chances of going far.
After Magda Linette won the opening match against Spain in the opening round, Swiatek defeated Paula Badosa to book Poland's place in the quarterfinal. Badosa jokingly accused her of ruining her birthday at the net afterward.
The five-time Grand Slam winner won an epic match 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 against Linda Noskova to level the quarterfinal tie against the Czech Republic before successfully partnering with Katarzyna Kawa to take the team into the semifinal.
Swiatek had to win another lengthy three-set battle against Jasmine Paolini to level the semifinal at 1-1. However, she and Kawa could not defeat Paolini and Sara Errani, and Team Poland was eliminated.
This year's French Open champion admitted in a press conference afterward to being exhausted during the doubles match and was struggling to cope physically, which is entirely understandable after her efforts against Noskova and Paolini.
The video below shows Swiatek being emotional after the match. Linette comforts her teammate, speaking to the Polish No. 1 while putting her hand on her shoulder.
Other team members then join Linette. Swiatek begins to smile while interacting with them, showing that the 2023 WTA Finals winner valued the team spirit and appreciation of her efforts.
Team captain Dawid Celt spoke about how proud he was of the team in the press conference afterward and singled out Swiatek specifically for being a leader.
"We left on court everything what we had. That's what we promised before the competition. I'm proud of my team and proud of my players. Iga is a true leader. Thank you, Iga. You were amazing. Yeah, I'm still full of emotions. Three exhausted days behind us. Yeah, I believe in the future we can go further."