Iga Swiatek ‘doesn’t look as calm on the court’, claims former world No 1
Iga Swiatek is still the favourite to lift the Indian Wells title despite appearing “more stressed out” on the court, according to former world No 1 Lindsay Davenport.
World No 2 Swiatek has arrived in Indian Wells ahead of the prestigious WTA 1000 event, which begins next week.
The Pole is the defending champion after beating Maria Sakkari in the final 12 months ago, having previously defeated the Greek to lift the title back in 2022.
Having also made it to the last four in 2023, the event has proven to be one of the most successful of Swiatek’s career.
However, the five-time Grand Slam champion approaches this year’s tournament amid one of the biggest title droughts of her career.
The Pole has not won a title – or even reached a WTA final – since Roland Garros last June.
In 2025, Swiatek has been beaten by Madison Keys in the last four of the Australian Open, in the semi-final of her Qatar Open title defence to Jelena Ostapenko, and in the quarter-final of the Dubai Tennis Championships to Mirra Andreeva.
She also fell to Coco Gauff when Poland faced the United States in the United Cup final back in January.
Swiatek’s slight dip in form comes after a challenging end to 2024, which saw the Pole split with long-term coach Tomasz Wiktorowski before teaming up with Wim Fissette.
The Pole also served a one-month suspension after testing positive for TMZ in August 2024, missing both the China Open and Wuhan Open – contributing to her losing the world No 1 ranking.
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In quotes reported by Tennis.com, three-time Grand Slam champion Davenport claimed that Swiatek did not “look as calm” on the court as she had previously done.
However, the US icon still backed the world No 2 to capture what would be a third title in the desert.
“There are certain players where you feel like they can’t help but wear their emotions, and you get a really good sense of Iga if you are looking into her eyes,” said Davenport.
“For whatever reason, she looks more stressed out on the court. Whether that’s because the results haven’t been there or the change of coach, I don’t know, so I’m speculating. She just doesn’t look as calm or at ease on the court.
“Sometimes it only takes one tournament, one match, one set, something that clicks in for a player and things start to turn around.
“She’s fortunate she’s coming into one of her favourite tournaments – for me, she’s the favourite going into Indian Wells.”
As a seeded player in Indian Wells, Swiatek will receive an opening-round bye in Tennis Paradise.
That means the Pole will likely begin her title defence this coming Friday and Saturday, with the first round of action taking place across Wednesday and Thursday,
The 23-year-old is set to be the second seed at the event behind world No 1 and 2023 finalist Aryna Sabalenka.
Other notable players set to be in action include American stars Gauff, Jessica Pegula, and Australian Open champion Keys, 2023 Indian Wells champion Elena Rybakina, and recent Dubai winner Andreeva.
