Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek: the powerhouse tennis player from Poland

Iga Swiatek was born on 31 May 2001 in Warsaw. She comes from a family with a real passion for sport. Her father Tomasz competed as a rower for Poland in the coxless four at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Iga took up tennis because she wanted to beat her older sister. Today she is the first Polish tennis player ever to win a Grand Slam tournament, having triumphed at the French Open in 2020.

Swiatek tries to take the ball as early as possible on the rise, and with her high shot speed, outstanding footwork and tactical smarts, she holds all the cards. Particularly striking is how calm and composed she remains, even under pressure - clearly, her work with a sports psychologist pays off. Her favourite surface is clay. In 2020, Iga Swiatek was named the WTA's “Fan Favorite Singles Player of the Year”.

Triumph at the French Open 2020

Even as a junior, Swiatek celebrated major success back in 2018: the girls' singles title at Wimbledon and the doubles title at the French Open alongside Catherine McNally.

Her greatest successes came in 2020. At the Australian Open she reached the fourth round of the Grand Slam tournament, and at the US Open the third round. At the French Open, she beat top seed Simona Halep 6-1, 6-2 in the fourth round, marched into her first Grand Slam final without dropping a set, and went on to beat Sofia Kenin in two sets. With that title, Swiatek catapulted herself to 17th in the world rankings and also made history: the Pole was the youngest French Open champion since Monica Seles in 1992.

World number 1 and a title hat-trick in Paris

In early 2022, Swiatek reached the semi-final of the Australian Open. She then went on an impressive run, winning three WTA 1000 tournaments within a matter of weeks. On 4 April 2022, she crowned these achievements by becoming world number 1 in women's tennis - the first Polish player ever to do so. In June 2022, she triumphed once again at the French Open, beating American Coco Gauff in the final. She underlined her dominance with an impressive 37-match winning streak.

In the final of the 2022 US Open, the Pole simply carried on her success story, beating Ons Jabeur comfortably in two sets. That made her the first Polish woman to win the US Open singles title. At the 2023 French Open, she once again claimed the title, as she did at the season finale, the WTA Finals in Cancún. In 2024 too, Swiatek conquered the French capital, winning her third consecutive French Open title - her self-declared favourite tournament on clay.

In 2025, Iga Swiatek finally achieved the breakthrough many had been waiting for: she won Wimbledon, claiming her first Grand Slam title away from the red clay and rounding off her title collection on all three surfaces. It was already her sixth Grand Slam title. The 2026 season has been more up and down for the Pole so far: after a rather subdued start and her split from coach Wim Fissette in March 2026, she is now working with Francisco Roig. Despite the odd surprising early exit, Swiatek, a six-time Grand Slam champion and former world number 1, remains firmly among the game's absolute elite and is counted among the top favourites at every Grand Slam tournament.

Iga Swiatek's playing style is offensive and varied

Standing at 1.76 m, Iga Swiatek plays a highly aggressive and varied brand of tennis. Thanks to her very offensive style, she racks up plenty of direct points, though she also makes a fair number of avoidable errors. She herself describes her tactics on clay as a combination of her strong serve, forehand topspin and down-the-line backhand. She sets up her points carefully and has the patience to wait for the right opportunity before hitting the winner at just the right moment.

Both her forehand and her two-handed backhand carry a great deal of power. She hits her forehand with an extreme western grip and heavy topspin. During Iga Swiatek's Roland Garros triumph in 2020, her average forehand speed was 118 km/h - significantly more than any other player. Her backhand speed is likewise exceptionally high. At the 2020 French Open she reached a top speed of 122 km/h, again the highest figure among all the players, and roughly equal to the backhand speed of Dominic Thiem, who has the fastest backhand among the male tennis professionals.

Swiatek frequently comes forward to the net, and thanks to her doubles experience she also has an excellent volley. Her first serve reaches a top speed of 183 km/h and averages 166 km/h. With such a powerful serve, she can dictate the rally from the very first shot and usually manages to hold her own service games.

Iga Swiatek pulls off the “Shot of the Year 2019”

Iga Swiatek skilfully mixes kick serves and slice serves, both of which she also uses as second serves. She likes to play drop shots and other eye-catching shots that take her opponent by surprise. Incidentally, she was awarded the WTA Tour's “Shot of the Year 2019” for a spectacular cross-court drop shot played from the baseline.

Iga Swiatek's gear: Tecnifibre rackets and On outfits

At her first Grand Slam triumph in 2020, Iga Swiatek was still playing with a Prince tennis racket, before switching to Tecnifibre in January 2021. Working directly with Tecnifibre's engineers, she was closely involved in developing her own model: the Tempo 298 IG she tested and signed off on has since evolved into the T-Fight I.G. signature series, which combines plenty of speed with controlled power thanks to a balanced weight distribution and XTC fibre inserts - in the current design, it even carries the number 4 in honour of her four French Open titles. For clothing and footwear, she relies on the Swiss brand On, including models from “The Roger” line, developed together with Roger Federer.

At Tennis-Point you'll find both the Tecnifibre signature racket and On tennis clothing and On tennis shoes, as well as a huge selection of other top products from all the leading tennis brands used by the tennis professionals on the WTA Tour.