WTA: Iga Swiatek - With a new coach for a good start to the season
Iga Swiatek spoke about the separation from her long-time coach Piotr Sierzputowski in the run-up to the WTA events in Australia. Not an easy decision, as the Polish woman emphasized. The new trainer is now TomaszWiktorowski.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Jan 02, 2022, 09:07 pm
The 2022 season should bring one thing above all for Iga Swiatek: a turnaround. The Pole, who came into the limelight almost out of nowhere with her surprising win at the French Open in 2020, showed a mediocre performance, especially in the second half of the previous year. Since her impressive 6-06-0 final win against Karolina Pliskova at the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome, the world rankings bottom in 2021 didn't really want to achieve another exclamation mark.
For Swiatek, the return to Down Under is now a return to the place where the Pole celebrated an early title win last year. "It is very nice to be back in a place where you enjoy a lot of affection. I have to find time to get into the rhythm and to go to the Australian Open in the best possible way prepared," Swiatek told im Run-up to the Adelaide WTA 500 event.
There Swiatek will be able to compete early on as the defending champion with the absolute world elite, at least against Ash Barty and Aryna Sabalenka, the two leaders of the WTA world rankings in Adelaide. With Garbine Muguruza and Barbora Krejcikova, two other top ten players had to cancel their start at the WTA 500 event at short notice.
Swiatek separates from long-term trainers
The event in Adelaide, it will also be the first tournament in which Iga Swiatek will start after separating from long-term coach Piotr Sierzputowski. Swiatek and Sierzputowski only ended their collaboration at the beginning of December. A far from easy decision, as the Pole now emphasizes: "It was not easy to make this decision. I'm not good at doing something like that, so it was a very difficult time for me," said the world number ninth. "For a week I had doubts about whether or not to do it, as I've worked with Piotr for over five years." Swiatek is now convinced that it has made the right decision.
Even now Swiatek has grabbed a compatriot as a trainer. With Tomasz Wiktorowski, the Polish woman is now working with a man who was on the WTA tour alongside Agnieszka Radwanska for eight years: "I am very happy that Tomasz is free at the moment, because I wanted to work with someone like him, who comes from Poland and has already trained top-class players on the pitch. I think it was a good decision. But we're still getting to know each other. "
The majority of the preparation has now been spent in Europe together - mainly due to the extremely tight timeline resulting from the short break between the two seasons. And yet the preparation was very productive: "I trained very hard and hope that I can be 100% in the first Grand Slam of the year," emphasized Swiatek. She knows what it feels like to triumph Down Under.