Rennae Stubbs 'concern' about Iga Swiatek's confidence ahead of big clay-court season

Ex-coach of the former world number one Serena Williams, Rennae Stubbs, has stated that she can see signs of concern about the form of Poland’s Iga Swiatek ahead of an important clay-court season. The 23-year-old, who is regarded as one of the best players currently playing in women’s tennis in the singles category, along with the likes of Aryna Sabalenka, is going through a difficult phase according to her own high standards.

Swiatek has not won a single WTA title ever since lifting the French Open last year. This year, the reigning world number two has not managed to qualify for the final of any event. Her most recent outing was at the Stuttgart Open, where she lost to Jelena Ostapenko with a score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Ex-coach of the former world number one Serena, Stubbs, has been recently quoted in a report where she highlighted the alarming signs regarding the confidence of Swiatek. The 54-year-old was of the opinion that she would be worried about Swiatek’s psyche if she fails to win any major title on a clay court this season.

"Look at two three years ago she had a 37-match win streak, right, I mean from the Australian Open, the moment Ash Barty pulled out as number one player in the world, Iga won Indian Wells, Miami, every clay court tournament, the French Open, she was on fire," said Stubbs. "I call it a plaque on the brain. Right when you're not confident, there's little things that start getting into your brain and you've got to chip away at them. And so you got to chip away at this Iga matchup with Ostapenko in some way. But a lot of it is, she now has this scared feeling of 'I'm not winning and I'm not getting the wins on clay. What's happening to me?' And so, is there concern?. Absolutely, I think there's a little bit of concern. Can she get it back and right the ship in Madrid, Rome and the French for sure? But if she doesn't, yes, I do worry about her psyche going forward because her game is so predicated on confidence."