Iga Swiatek is one of the greatest clay-court players of all time, but her success outside of the surface has been limited.
Swiatek's success on clay has been well documented. She's a four-time French Open champion, having lost at the tournament only once since 2021, and on top of that, she has multiple WTA 1000 trophies on the surface.
The Polish player triumphed at the Madrid Open this year, and she won the Italian Open in 2021, 2022, and 2024. On top of that, she is also the two-time champion at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, which is a WTA 500 tournament.
Her fortunes have been much different on the hard courts and grass, especially on the Grand Slam level. Swiatek managed to win the Qatar Open in 2022, 2023, and 2024. She's also the Indian Wells Champion, having won the tournament in 2022 and 2024, and she won the Miami Open in 2022 as well.
Last year, the five-time Grand Slam champion also won the China Open, and most notably, she's the 2022 US Open champion. However, in the past two years, she didn't get past the quarter-final stage at a major outside of the Roland Garros.
Swiatek lost in the fourth and third rounds at the Australian Open, in the quarter-finals and the third round at Wimbledon, and in the fourth round and the quarter-final at the US Open.
It's clear that she wants to change that, and maybe that was also one of the reasons why she hired Wim Fissette, who is her new coach after her split from Tomasz Wiktorowski.
Shortly after the two started to work together, Fissette sat down with Eurosport to talk about their collaboration and their goals, and success outside of the Roland Garros was one of the first goals that he named.
Of course, the 44-year-old coach wants Swiatek to remain the 'Queen of Clay', but at the same time, he knows that if she wants to be a truly legendary player, she must have more success also in Melbourne, London, and New York.
"We want her to stay the 'Queen of Clay.' But definitely, being more successful in other Grand Slams is definitely a goal. Being more comfortable on the faster surfaces. But again, it's not easy if you're so successful on the clay."
Despite outlying success outside of the Parisian clay as one of the main goals, Fissette is also aware of why it might be challenging for Swiatek to succeed at Wimbledon in her tennis career.
This year, for example, she won the Madrid Open, the Italian Open, and the French Open, back-to-back-to-back, and after playing so many matches on clay, she didn't even have time to properly reset before coming to Wimbledon.
That's a challenge that she might face for the rest of her career, as given her success on clay, the Pole might always arrive in London drained, not just physically but also emotionally.
At the end of the day, the greatest clay-court tennis player of all time, Rafael Nadal, managed to win Wimbledon only twice in his career, in 2008 and 2010.
"You play so many matches in just a few weeks time, and you have a quick turnaround to the grass. You need to get comfortable on the grass, you need to get confident in your gameplan, your movement, and after Paris, if you win it, you also need a little bit of mental break to start fresh."
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