{"id":634052,"date":"2026-05-10T03:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T03:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634052\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T03:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T03:44:17","slug":"iga-swiatek-explains-how-coach-francisco-roig-tore-his-achilles-on-a-court-in-a-rome-piazza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634052\/","title":{"rendered":"Iga \u015awi\u0105tek explains how coach Francisco Roig tore his Achilles \u2014 on a court in a Rome piazza"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROME \u2014 Iga \u015awi\u0105tek\u2019s coach, Francisco Roig<\/a>, tore his right Achilles tendon when stretching for a volley as they played a practice match \u2014 with \u20ac100 ($118) at stake on a special clay court set up in one of the city\u2019s piazzas.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I broke my coach\u2019s Achilles,\u201d \u015awi\u0105tek told a few reporters in a mixed zone Friday after a three-set win over American world No. 63 Caty McNally at the Italian Open. Roig, a longtime coach of Rafael Nadal, watched the 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3 win with his right leg heavily bandaged, after getting to his seat on crutches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were having a practice on Piazza del Popolo,\u201d \u015awi\u0105tek said, referring to the large square in Rome where the Italian Open erects a clay court for promotional activities, with fans in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were like, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to play this fun game we were playing before\u2019. I wanted to show it to him. He\u2019s really good on the volley. So we made a bet for \u20ac100 ($118). I thought I was going to lose, honestly, because he\u2019s been playing so great the volley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like maybe let\u2019s play only the singles court. It\u2019s a half court basically (with both players hitting volleys to one another inside the service box). I want to win, I\u2019ll make you move a little bit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had 5-4 and the match point already. He did a split step and tore his Achilles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people noticed how serious it was because he was so brave in the moment. I would burst out crying. I would make such a drama. His face was like normal. I thought he was joking at the beginning. My hitting partner thought he was joking, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The injury happened Saturday, and \u015awi\u0105tek said that Roig had surgery in Warsaw before returning to Italy Tuesday. The recovery time is normally around nine months \u2014 even if Denmark\u2019s Holger Rune will attempt to comeback after seven at this month\u2019s Hamburg Open \u2014 and while Roig does not need to be in the same shape as a professional player, it\u2019ll still be a significant challenge for him to coach as he would like to.<\/p>\n

He and \u015awi\u0105tek have only been working together for just over a month, after she decided to part ways with Wim Fissette after a year and a half. Roig had recently stopped working with Britain\u2019s Emma Raducanu, and left his role coaching France\u2019s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard to join up with \u015awi\u0105tek.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy right now in the practices because he can\u2019t be next to me,\u201d \u015awi\u0105tek said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll make it work, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u015awi\u0105tek and Roig spent longer on court than they might have expected Friday. After cruising to a 6-1, 3-1, 15-40 lead against McNally, with two break points for 4-1, \u015awi\u0105tek twice failed to serve out the match and frequently made errors in the face of her opponent\u2019s resolute defense. She broke first in the third set, but was again pegged back, before earning the chance to serve out at 5-3 and this time securing the win.<\/p>\n

Her next assignment comes on Sunday, in the shape of a third-round match against either No. 28 seed Emma Navarro of the U.S. or home hope Elisabetta Cocciaretto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2014 Iga \u015awi\u0105tek\u2019s coach, Francisco Roig, tore his right Achilles tendon when stretching for a volley as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-634052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}