Iga Swiatek’s battle back to the summit of tennis has been an arduous one after struggling to find her feet early in 2025.
Earlier in the year, Swiatek suffered shock exits to Mirra Andreeva and Danielle Collins at Indian Wells and Rome respectively.
In fact, the Pole went over a year without winning a WTA Tour title after losing in the French Open semi-finals to Aryna Sabalenka.
However, her form was soon to change. Swiatek’s first grass-court final appearance at the Bad Homburg Open foreshadowed future events, as she went on to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish at Wimbledon in July.
Fast forward to August and the 24-year-old is gearing up for a third-round match at the Cincinnati Open. The Pole will face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk after defeating Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in the second round.
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There has been a change in geographical scenery recently as tournaments have moved from the European clay and grass-court surfaces to the North American hard courts.
A change to the type of ball has faced much scrutiny due to an apparent difficulty in controlling them. The North American hard-court swing uses Wilson US Open balls, while Wimbledon uses Slazenger balls, and the French Open uses Wilson Roland Garros balls.
Swiatek addressed this issue while speaking to reporters after her victory over Potapova.
Iga Swiatek says the Wilson US Open balls are lighter than the ones used at Wimbledon and on clay
The Wilson US Open balls have been frequently discussed in recent weeks due to an apparent lack of control. At the Canadian Open, Taylor Fritz said they were ‘the hardest balls to control.’
After playing her first match at the Cincinnati Open, Iga Swiatek has weighed in on the issue. The Pole was asked by one reporter to expand on her perspective and approach on dealing with the ‘light’ US Wilson US Open balls.
Swiatek said: “Yeah I won the US Open but I also like lost couple times second round, or third.
“So I’m kind of being humble and knowing that you need to kind of adjust to the balls because they’re not going to help you a bit.
So yeah, they are light. They are much different than what we played at on like clay and on Wimbledon.
So yeah, the only way to like think about it is to focus on adjusting as best as possible and accepting that there are going to be some shots that are just going to kind of fly away from your racket and trying to control it as much as possible.
Swiatek speaks about early-season struggles
Swiatek was also asked to comment on her early-season struggles.
The Pole noted there were a variety of factors, pinpointing her clay-court expectations as one particular area of struggle.
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She said: “I think there were a lot of factors back then. Well for sure the expectations on clay and just me kind of feeling like I don’t know, I need to compete my best every week, but I sometimes needed just time to kind of reset but didn’t really get it until I lost in Rome.
“Yeah me being like frustrated quicker from different reasons like… and not working the proper way, kind of being stubborn sometimes with the way I approach stuff so I think it was a mix, and I needed some time to get out of that after Rome.”