Iga Swiatek’s ‘turbulent’ team dynamics under the spotlight after emotional Wimbledon win
Iga Swiatek made a nervous start to her Wimbledon title defence and the behaviour of members of her team during her match against Taylor Townsend raised several eyebrows.
The six-time Grand Slam winner was handed a tough opening assignment at the All England Club as Townsend is known for lifting her game for the big occasion and that proved to be the case on Centre Court on Tuesday.
Swiatek saved five break points in her opening game of the match, but appeared to settle down after that as she went on to break three times to take the opening set.
But Townsend sensed that she was still jittery in the second set as the American raced into a 4-0 lead and eventually took it to a decider.
And Swiatek also struggled at the start of the third set, saving four break points before two late breaks earned her a 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory.
There was an outpouring of emotion at the end of the match as the Pole cried while sitting down on her chair and during her post-match reaction, she admitted “it was a tough couple of weeks” without going into further detail.
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But concerns were raised about the interactions of her team members, particularly coach Francisco Roig and sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz, as there was a lot of “gesturing” during the encounter.
The Tennis Podcast’s Catherine Whittaker witnessed it all and revealed: “There were quite a few head-up interactions in her box throughout the match between Francisco Roig, her coach, and Daria Abramowicz, her psychologist.
“I did see them high-five at the end of the match, the whole team high-fived amongst themselves when she won.
“But then Francisco Roig left the box on his own, didn’t look back and wait for the others. They were all there, he had left on his own. It’s not giving harmonious and settled [atmosphere] at the moment and Swiatek, I think, is somebody who needs harmonious and settled and quiet.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I just sense it’s turbulent.”
David Law added: “Whenever we saw Roig with [Emma] Raducanu, he talks a lot, he is a lot, I think.”
Whittaker then replied: “And she’s [Abramowicz] a lot, she talks a lot and from her perspective ‘I’m the one who has been here for however many years’. Her role is wide-ranging, it is not as simple as just a psychologist anymore.
“From his perspective, he is probably like ‘I’m the coach, you do your psychology, leave the coaching to me’. I can imagine where tension is likely to come.”
