“Iga has provided to the world what happened”: Swiatek’s new coach Wim Fissette defends her case against Kyrgios’ attacks

Wim Fissette joined Iga Swiatek at the end of 2024, shortly after the doping case involving the five-time Grand Slam champion was made public. The Polish player completed a one-month suspension last week after being deemed to have "no significant fault."

One of Swiatek’s most vocal critics has been Australian Nick Kyrgios, who had already expressed his discontent with how the ITIA handled Jannik Sinner’s case. Upon hearing about the Polish player’s situation, Kyrgios did not hesitate to direct his criticism toward the World No. 2.

Fissette’s announcement as Swiatek’s new coach came shortly after her separation from Tomasz Wiktorowski. This is the first time the four-time Roland Garros champion has worked with a non-Polish coach, and she opted for none other than the high-profile Belgian coach, who has previously worked with several Grand Slam champions and former World No. 1 players, including Naomi Osaka, Victoria Azarenka, Kim Clijsters, Angelique Kerber, and Simona Halep.

Since joining Swiatek’s team, Fissette commented that he was aware of his player’s situation, even though it was not public knowledge at the time of his hiring. He has shown his full support for the 23-year-old player.

Recently, Kyrgios appeared on the Nothing Major podcast, where he addressed the Swiatek issue and reiterated criticisms he had made on social media. "Once you get caught, you can’t act like the victim," Kyrgios said on the Nothing Major podcast.

“It’s nothing personal. What do I have that’s personal against Iga Swiatek? I have nothing personal against Iga. Everybody should be able to play on an equal footing,” the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up added. "I repeat, once you get caught, you can’t act like the victim anymore. That’s what pisses me off even more. I’m like: ‘Wait a second… you’re using your team, right?’"

Recently, Fissette had the opportunity to respond to Kyrgios after making some statements to Onet, where he said that anyone who thoroughly reviews the case would realize that Swiatek was a victim of "bad luck": "There will always be people who will be negative," he said. "But I think that anyone who has read all the documents that Iga has provided and shown to the whole world sees what happened – and should understand that it was just bad luck."

“It can happen to any player. I think that those people who are negative about the case, we should ask a few questions about Iga’s report and check whether they have actually read it."

Swiatek completed 22 days of provisional suspension while waiting for her appeal to be accepted. She served this suspension during the Asian Swing, skipping the China Open and Wuhan Open. Since the US Open, the Polish player has only played one tournament: the WTA Finals, where she was eliminated in the Round Robin stage.

Finally, Swiatek accepted a definitive 30-day suspension, with the last 8 days of it served during the off-season in the first week of December.

The World No. 2 will not face any issues starting the 2025 season normally. She will compete in the United Cup, joining Hubert Hurkacz, and they will aim to improve on their 2024 result, where they reached the final but lost to Germany's Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber. After their participation, Swiatek and Fissette will travel to Melbourne for the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open.