The 6 most shocking defeats of Iga Swiatek’s season as former No 1 crashes out of Wuhan Open

Sam Cooper 10 Oct 2025 2:30 PM

It’s been a year of up and downs for Iga Swiatek.

Iga Swiatek has suffered another humbling defeat at the Wuhan Open in the latest step of what has become a shock-filled 2025.

The once-dominant Pole, who spent 75 consecutive weeks at No 1, has had a very up-and-down season with wins at Wimbledon and Cincinnati countered by a number of straight-set defeats.

Here are her six most surprising losses of the 2025 season so far:

3-6, 1-6 loss to Jelena Ostapenko at the Qatar Open

Swiatek’s first shock of the season came in Doha when she lost to the unseeded Ostapenko.

The Pole made it through fairly comfortably to the semi-final, dropping just one set in her three matches on the way, but was then stopped in her tracks by Ostapenko who lost only four games.

This was no one-off either. Despite being consistently ranked several places higher than Ostapenko, Swiatek is 0-6 against her and has been beaten on all three surfaces.

6-3, 6-3 loss to Mirra Andreeva at the Dubai Open

The Dubai Open back in February was shaping up very nicely for Swiatek. With top seed Aryna Sabalenka out in the third round and Coco Gauff out in the second, Swiatek was the clear favourite for the tournament but she was knocked out in surprising fashion in the quarter-finals.

She faced No.12 seed Mirra Andreeva who smashed her much more experienced opponent 6-3, 6-3.

The 17-year-old completed the match in one hour, 36 minutes and even survived going down a break in the second set to seal what was only her fifth career victory against a top 10 player.

Andreeva went on to win the tournament, defeating Clara Tauson in the final.

2-6, 5-7 loss to Alexandra Eala at the Miami Open

Having reached the semis of Indian Wells and with a number of other top seeds already out, Swiatek would have been hopeful of at least a final appearance in Miami but her run was cut short by the wildcard entry Eala.

The Filipino youngster was in good form before their quarter-final match, not losing a single set in her three previous fixtures and given the extra rest of a walkover in the fourth round but even that does not explain how she so easily navigated the threat of Swiatek.

Crucially, Eala made her break points count, winning 80% of them while Swiatek’s ratio was down at 56%.

Tim Henman, who was watching courtside, described it as “one of the biggest upsets I’ve been on the side of the court for.”

Swiatek would, though, take her revenge later in the year, winning against Eala in the second round of the Madrid Open.

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1-6, 1-6 loss to Coco Gauff at the Madrid Open

Losing to Gauff is no great shock but it was the manner of Swiatek’s Madrid Open defeat that was so surprising.

The one-way match was over in just 64 minutes with Swiatek only winning two of her service games. It also added to what was a poor clay season for the Pole and one which she described as “pretty bad.”

“I couldn’t really get my level up,” she said.

“Coco played good, but, yeah, I think it’s on me that I didn’t really move well, I wasn’t ready to play back the shots with heaviness. With that kind of game, it was pretty bad.

“Today for sure, everything kind of collapsed, both tennis-wise and I feel like I wasn’t even in the right place with my feet before the shots.

“I wish I would have moved better, because I think that would get me any opportunity to bounce back, because this is usually what happens.”

1–6, 5–7 loss to Danielle Collins at the Italian Open

Swiatek’s clay nightmare continued at the very next tournament when she was knocked out by Collins, the No.29 seed for the tournament.

Swiatek was shocked straight out the gate with Collins racing to a 6-1 first set victory and even if the former No.1 recovered, she still lost the second set 5-7 to record only her second ever defeat to the American and the first for three years.

1-6, 2-6 loss to Jasmine Paolini at the Wuhan Open

While the grass season was a little kinder to Swiatek, including her victory at Wimbledon, her latest shock defeat has come at the hands of world No.4 Paolini.

Heading into their Wuhan match, Swiatek had never lost to the young Italian and was 6-0 up in their previous meetings.

But Paolini produced a near-flawless performance to finally defeat Swiatek. As with her loss to Eala, it was break points that cost Swiatek with Paolini winning all six she was presented with.

Bagels against three different opponents

While there have been plenty of defeats for Swiatek to mull over, there have also been a number of 6-0 scorelines go against her.

The first came at the Madrid Open where Madison Keys inflicted it upon her in the first set, although Swiatek did rally to win the quarter-final matchup.

At the French Open, Aryna Sabalenka secured her place in the final with a 6-0 scoreline in the third set while Navarro also won 6-0 in the third set, this time at last month’s China Open.