Iga Swiatek continues to impress on the WTA Tour as she searches for her maiden Canadian Open title.
The Polish star hadn’t been seen on tour since Swiatek won Wimbledon in July, as she rested up before making her return in Montreal.
Winning her eighth match in a row, Swiatek took down China’s Guo Hanyu in round two.
Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images
Next up was a test against German youngster Eva Lys, a test Swiatek passed with flying colors, winning 6-2, 6-2, as she booked her place in the last 16 of the Canadian Open.
During her post-match press conference, Swiatek was asked to reflect on the past 12 months of her career, as she answered an interesting hypothetical question.
Iga Swiatek would ‘for sure’ have taken not winning a title for a year to win Wimbledon
After winning her fourth French Open title in 2024, Swiatek embarked on a 12-month title drought, failing to reach another final until the 2025 Bad Homburg Open.
Losing out in Bad Homburg, Swiatek won her next tournament, clinching the Wimbledon title, as she finally returned to winning ways.
Asked whether she would have taken not winning a title for a year in order to win Wimbledon, Swiatek provided an interesting response.
“Oh, my God (laughing). That’s a tough one,” she said.
“Well, the first part, for sure, it’s kind of sad, but yeah, I would totally give one year of not winning any title for Wimbledon, for sure. Like, it’s a Slam.
“Even though I didn’t play any finals, except Bad Homburg, I still feel like I had good tournaments. You know, there was always something missing, like in the semifinal or something, but still, with the year that I had, in the case I feel like I did great anyway.
“So for sure, I would take that.”
Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images
As Swiatek mentioned, she often fell during the latter stages of tournaments during her year-long title-less spell.
It wasn’t as if the Pole’s level dropped significantly; she just couldn’t quite get over the line in her quarterfinal and semifinal matches.
TournamentRound lost inOpponentScore2024 Cincinnati OpenSFAryna Sabalenka3-6, 3-62024 US OpenQFJessica Pegula2-6, 4-62025 Australian OpenSFMadison Keys7-5, 1-6, 6-72025 Qatar OpenSFJelena Ostapenko3-6, 1-62025 Dubai Tennis ChampionshipsQFMirra Andreeva3-6, 3-62025 Indian WellsSFMirra Andreeva6-7, 6-1, 3-62025 Miami OpenQFAlexandra Eala2-6, 5-72025 Porsche Tennis Grand PrixQFJelena Ostapenko3-6, 6-3, 2-62025 Madrid OpenSFCoco Gauff1-6, 1-62025 French OpenSFAryna Sabalenka6-7, 6-4, 0-6Iga Swiatek’s quarterfinal and semifinal defeats during her trophy-less spell
Between June 2024 and July 2025, Swiatek lost four quarterfinals and six semifinals on the WTA Tour.
Those results, whilst devastating for Swiatek at the time, have kept her in contention for the number one ranking, as she continues to pick up points in 2025.
Iga Swiatek closes the gap to Aryna Sabalenka in the ‘WTA Race’
Swiatek has reached at least the quarterfinals of ten of the 11 tournaments she’s played in 2025, as she frequently finds herself making deep runs.
In doing so, Swiatek has emerged as a challenger to her greatest rival, Aryna Sabalenka, for the world number one ranking.
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She currently trails the Belarusian by 1,292 points in the ‘Live WTA Race’, a gap that could be closed to less than 500 points should Swiatek win the title in Canada.
RankNameNationality2025 points1Aryna SabalenkaBelarusian7,3952Iga SwiatekPolish6,1033Coco GauffAmerican4,7294Madison KeysAmerican4,2255Mirra AndreevaRussian4,0596Amanda AnisimovaAmerican3,5737Jessica PegulaAmerican3,3668Elena RybakinaKazakh2,8519Jasmine PaoliniItalian2,74610Elina SvitolinaUkrainian2,491Top ten in the ‘Live WTA Race’
Swiatek will continue her search for a maiden Canadian Open title when she takes on Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the fourth round.
The Pole has won their two previous meetings, at Indian Wells in 2022 and at Wimbledon in 2025.
Only time will tell who will emerge victorious in their third WTA clash, as Swiatek and Tauson battle it out for a place in the Canadian Open quarterfinals on Sunday, August 3.