Iga Swiatek to ‘maybe miss two tournaments’ in 2026 so which events are likely to be dropped?
Iga Swiatek has made no secret of the fact that she is not a fan of the lengthy tennis calendar and she has now confirmed that she will take matters into her own hands by “missing maybe two tournaments”.
The six-time Grand Slam winner played 19 events in 2025 – including the WTA Finals – and she broke the 80-match for the second time in her career following the 2023 season as she finished with a win-loss record of 64–17.
Despite those 19 tournaments, Swiatek still came up short in terms of the WTA rules for mandatory WTA 500 events as she only featured in four instead of the required six, resulting in zero-pointers for two WTA 500 events.
The Pole was first docked 65 points and then an additional 105 points, but ultimately it didn’t have a big impact on the outcome of her year-end rankings as she finished a distant second behind Aryna Sabalenka.
But the world No 2 is unlikely to hit 19 tournaments again next year as she confirmed during an interview with The Guardian that she is likely to skip two tournaments.
“I would like to try missing maybe two tournaments – maybe the ones I feel I haven’t been playing well at anyway – just spending this time on grinding and getting the technique better,” the 24-year-old stated.
“I think it will help me also play a little bit better under stress, because my body will remember the proper movements and what it learned during this practice time.
“Mentally, it can give me a lot of confidence, knowing I worked hard. Then I can come to tournaments a little bit better prepared, because for sure, playing all mandatory tournaments now, most players will tell you they’re not always 100% ready to play every one of these.”
Tournaments In Danger Of Disappearing?
In terms of the Grand Slams, she will no doubt turn up at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open.
Swiatek has also been confirmed for the United Cup while chances of her skipping some clay-court tournaments are quite low so you can expect the Madrid Open, Italian Open and Stuttgart Grand Prix to remain on her calendar.
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If you take her comment “the ones I feel I haven’t been playing well at anyway” into consideration, then the Canadian Open could fall away as she is yet to crack the code at the WTA 1000 event.
It is one of the three WTA 1000 events that she is yet to win with her best performance coming in 2023 when she reached the semi-final.
This year, she lost in the fourth round against Clara Tauson while she missed the tournament in 2024 as she was competing at the Paris Olympics and was also absent in 2021.
The Wuhan Open is another tournament that the Pole could skip, as she made her debut at the WTA 1000 event, reaching the quarter-final.
The Dubai Tennis Championship could also be dropped despite her decent record at the tournament, finishing runner-up in 2023 while she made the semi-final in 2024 and the quarter-final in 2025.
Although she reached the Bad Homburg Open final this year, which many believe played a crucial role in her Wimbledon title run, the WTA 500 could also be dropped as she didn’t play any grass-court warm-up events in 2024.
But that would once again leave her in danger of not playing the mandatory six WTA 500 tournaments.
