On Wednesday in Stuttgart, Francisco Roig was chatting with a fellow member of Iga Swiatek’s player box. Swiatek had just won the first set over Laura Siegemund by bulldozing a backhand winner down the line, and Roig appeared to be commenting, approvingly, on her swing. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Swiatek was looking over at him from her seat on court. He quickly lifted his hand and flashed her a thumbs up.
Roig and Swiatek, in their first match together, weren’t quite on the same page yet about when she likes to get her positive reinforcement. It’s safe to say they’ll get there. Otherwise, the Spaniard’s gesture was appropriate: Their debut was a thumbs-up type of performance. In Siegemund, Swiatek beat a pesky opponent who was playing in front of her home fans, and who has won this tournament before, 6-2, 6-3, with a minimum of drama and angst.
Up until now, it has been a pretty angsty season for the Pole. She doesn’t have an individual title. Her ranking has dropped from No. 2 to No. 4—a low number for someone who has spent 122 weeks at No. 1. Worse, she has failed to play her best, or anywhere near her best, in crucial moments; when she has needed to tighten the ship, she has let the errors flow instead. Finally, after losing to her 56th-ranked countrywoman Magda Linette in Miami, Iga had had enough. She parted ways with Wim Fissette, the coach who helped her to a Wimbledon title just last summer.
In place of Fissette, Swiatek went looking for a little Rafa magic. A lifetime acolyte of the clay king, she decided to start her preparation for the surface with a training block at his academy in Mallorca. The trip turned out to be everything she was looking for, and possibly a little more. It sounds like Iga got a full immersion into dirt-ball training, Spanish-style.
“I don’t think I ever spent so much time on court as I did in Mallorca,” she said on Wednesday. “A week full of grind.”
Not that she minded.
“With Rafa it was a really inspiring time,” she said. “Having him on the court was an extra crazy boost of motivation. He has that energy. Having him on court you want to show him the same kind of vibe.”
Swiatek liked Rafa’s academy so much she ended up walking away with one of his old coaches, Roig.
“I haven’t changed coaches often in my career, but I feel excited,” she says. “I was basically looking for someone with a good eye, really technical, but also a person that is experienced enough to help me through some different kind of situations.”