Iga Swiatek handed damning verdict about clay-court struggles by former players

Iga Swiatek has been one of the best players on the red dirt in recent years, but her current form has seen her drop out of the top five current clay-court players, according to two former ATP stars.

After a stuttering hard-court campaign during which she lost her opening match at the Miami Open and also lost in the quarter-finals in Indian Wells, Qatar and the Australian Open, many expected Swiatek to regain form on her favourite surface.

The six-time Grand Slam winner has an 86% win-loss record on clay and 10 of her 25 titles on the WTA Tour have been won on the surface with four coming at the French Open and four at WTA 1000 events.

After her shock Miami exit, she changed coaches in an attempt to change things around as she split with Wim Fissette and appointed Francisco Roig as her new mentor.

But she has been unable to regain form as she is 2-2 on the red dirt after suffering second-round defeats at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart and last week’s Madrid Open, but it has to be noted that her Madrid exit to Ann Li came on the back of a retirement during the third set due to illness.

Iga Swiatek News

WTA Italian Open: Points being defended by Sabalenka, Gauff, Swiatek, Paolini, Raducanu, Eala

Iga Swiatek reveals she ‘was so tight’ while training under Rafael Nadal’s watchful eye

While Swiatek has struggled, her main rivals Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Rybakina have flourished so far in 2026 with the former dominating on hard courts while Rybakina has won titles on both hard and clay courts.

Swiatek, of course, also didn’t win any clay tournaments last year with her last title – and final – coming at the 2024 French Open while Sabalenka, Rybakina, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula have all won events on the surface.

So does she rank as one of the top-five clay-court players on current form?

During a discussion on the Nothing Major podcast, Sam Querrey stated: “On Tennis Channel we were going over the top five clay courters right now and I didn’t have Iga in my top five.

“I got some pushback from it, because of her clay-court results over the last five years. She has been the best over the last five years. But right now, she is not. I think confidence is the most important trait in tennis. She came into Madrid having not made a semi-final! She could not have been coming in very confident right now.”

Steve Johnson felt she was still in the top five, but only because of her previous results and admitted that her form is starting to become a real concern.

“I’d put her in at five out of respect, but I don’t think she is a close five. I would put her on past results but I don’t think she is the fifth-best player right now,” he said.

“I was not hitting the panic button until this week but we have officially hit the panic button now.”