"Honestly, I don’t know": Iga Swiatek's uncertainty after heavy Madrid loss against Coco Gauff

Iga Swiatek continues to struggle to find her best form after a resounding defeat to Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals of the Madrid Open. The world No. 2 suffered her biggest loss on clay courts since she lost to world No. 3 Simona Halep at the 2019 French Open when she was just 18 years old.

During the last few seasons, Swiatek has been dominant on clay courts. Last year, she won the WTA 1000 Madrid Open and Rome Open, as well as her 4th Roland Garros title, with a 21-1 record on clay courts in 2024. This time, she has 'only' a 5-2 record and has once again failed to reach a final this season.

The 5-time Grand Slam champion has now lost six consecutive semifinals in tournaments, and her last final played was at the French Open 2024, 11 months ago. The defeat to Gauff deepens Swiatek's problems, especially with such an adverse result where she only managed to win two games.

"Honestly, there’s nothing like to walk through because it was all pretty much the same from the beginning to the end," she stated. "I couldn’t really get my level up. Coco played good, but, yeah, I think it’s on me that I didn’t really move well, I wasn’t ready to play back the shots with heaviness, and with that kind of game, it was pretty bad."

The former No. 1 said that she is not sure if it was just a bad match, or if she is going through a dip in her form: “Honestly, I don’t know,” she claimed.

Swiatek won just 35% of the points on her first serve and 50% on her second, and she also didn't have a single break point throughout the match. Her opponent Gauff took advantage of her opportunities, winning 5/7 break points and only conceding 6 points on her serve throughout the match, winning more than double the points of the Pole.

"For sure, I feel like I haven’t been moving well and the tennis also was like on and off for most of the tournament," Iga Swiatek added. "So I wasn’t really sure what I have in my tool box, you know, but, for sure, like I didn’t even have a plan B because nothing was working today."

"I didn’t play well even on these matches that I won," the 23-year-old added. "I think I pushed kind of with my head, you know, for more than I even should, tennis-wise."

"For sure I feel heavy, and you are like forcing everything instead of going by intuition and by itself, you know," she said. "Because I know how I can move, and usually I didn’t have to think about it much. But for last weeks it hasn’t been that easy. I’ve been like forcing myself to go lower, to be more precise with my feet, because it’s not going by itself."