Iga Swiatek reveals biggest hurdle to her completing a career Grand Slam

Ewan West
Iga Swiatek during a match
A fully focused Iga Swiatek looking ahead

Iga Swiatek has declared that she hopes to complete a career Grand Slam “as soon as possible”, but also stressed she is “not rushing” chasing the achievement.

The 22-year-old star suggested winning Wimbledon could be the toughest hurdle to overcome in completing the set by admitting she needs “a couple more years to learn how to play on grass better.”

Swiatek has claimed four Grand Slam titles in her young career, having won the French Open in 2020, 2022 and 2023 and the US Open in 2022. She achieved her best result at the Australian Open in 2022, when she lost to Danielle Collins in the semi-finals.

The Pole made her best run at Wimbledon to date this year, when she was beaten by Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals. She is a junior Wimbledon champion, having secured her only junior Grand Slam title at the All England Club in 2018.

The world No 2 is in action this week at the WTA 500 tournament in Tokyo, where she is the top seed. She will face world No 148 Mai Hontama, a Japanese qualifier, in her opening match on Wednesday.

Speaking at the media day ahead of the event in Tokyo, Swiatek was asked when she will complete a career Grand Slam.

“Oh my god, when!? (smiling) I don’t think I can answer you specifically. Um, as soon as possible. Well for sure, I think I need a couple of more years to learn how to play on grass better. So, I’m not rushing it you know,” said the 22-year-old.

“I’m 22, so I still have a lot of time probably, more than like 10 years. So I’m doing my best to win every tournament, every tournament I play at. But yeah, I’m not rushing it because I’ve already won four Slams.

“What I did since 2020 is crazy, it’s hard for me sometimes to even understand how it happened. Because when I was younger, I didn’t know it was going to be possible for me. So really, I’m taking it easy.”

Swiatek was upset by Jelena Ostapenko in the last 16 of the US Open earlier this month, a result which confirmed she would lose the world No 1 position to Aryna Sabalenka.

In an interview with Eurosport following Swiatek’s exit in New York, Mats Wilander explained why he thinks losing the WTA top spot will be a positive for the four-time major winner.

“I think this is most probably the best thing that can happen for her tennis. There’s a reason for her to start working on her game again and figuring out what happens to her when she plays against big hitters now she doesn’t have to [worry about being world No 1],” said the seven-time Grand Slam champion.

“But she’s right in the statement about defending. We turn into a bit of a negative, we talk about defending, defending points, so I think it’s time for her to step aside and work on her game a bit.”

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