Iga Swiatek will be keen to step on court again and banish the memory of her painful defeat to Coco Gauff in Madrid.
The Pole title defence in the Spanish capital came to an abrupt and somewhat shocking end when Gauff comprehensively defeated her 6-1, 6-1.
This marked Swiatek’s first loss to Gauff on clay and third successive defeat to the American. In fact, she has not beaten the 21-year-old since the 2024 French Open.
Though Swiatek has now turned her attention toward the Italian Open title defence, there is no denying that Madrid Open loss was one of the worst of her career so far.
Iga Swiatek explains why she played so poorly against Coco Gauff in Madrid
Many were expecting a titanic battle when Iga Swiatek faced Coco Gauff in the Madrid Open semi-finals.
But instead it was arguably their most one-sided clash so far, as Gauff wrapped up the match in just one hour and four minutes after losing just two games.
Swiatek was emotional on court as she struggled to keep the ball in court, as she fired 21 unforced errors while winning just 35% of her first serve points.
Ahead of competing in Rome, Swiatek touched on her display against Gauff in Spain once again, and explained what contributed to her performance.
“Yeah, the match with Coco for sure wasn’t good. I had trouble focusing. I wasn’t moving well. I think everything kind of built up at one moment,” the World number two said.