OPINION | Iga Swiatek's reign as Queen of Clay at Roland Garros is on the verge of collapse

After a crushing defeat in the Madrid Open semifinals, Iga Swiatek appears to be sinking deeper into a crisis with no end in sight. With Roland Garros looming, the question now being whispered around the tour is unthinkable: Are we witnessing the end of her clay-court hegemony?

The former World No. 1 has yet to make a meaningful breakthrough in 2025. Her last title dates back nearly a year—to the French Open in May 2024. Since then, she has endured a prolonged drought, a stark contrast to her previous dominance on clay, where she has collected four Roland Garros titles and numerous WTA 1000 and WTA 500 trophies.

Swiatek's downturn can be traced back to a pivotal loss: her semifinal defeat to Zheng Qinwen at the 2024 Olympics. Played on her home turf at Roland Garros, the tournament was widely expected to be hers for the taking. But the loss to the eventual gold medalist shattered a confidence that had, until then, seemed unbreakable.

What followed was a steady decline. Swiatek suffered a string of unexpected defeats on hard courts—surfaces where she had previously proven capable, even winning a major. The US Open exposed those vulnerabilities further, as Jessica Pegula dispatched the top seed in straight sets.

Then came a bombshell. Following the US Open, Swiatek vanished from competition, skipping the entire Asian swing. The reason emerged in November 2024: a one-month suspension for a positive doping test. The banned substance, trimetazidine, was traced to a contaminated melatonin supplement purchased in Poland to treat jet lag-induced sleep issues. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) ruled the violation unintentional and handed down the minimum penalty—similar to the one given to Jannik Sinner in a comparable case.

Swiatek missed three events and forfeited her Cincinnati prize money during the ban. When she returned at the WTA Finals, she lacked rhythm and failed to progress past the round-robin stage. The title ultimately went to Coco Gauff.

So far in 2025, inconsistency has defined her campaign. Though she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, a dramatic loss to Madison Keys—one that visibly shook her—added another blow to an already fragile psyche.

More worrying than the defeats themselves is the manner in which they’ve come. Despite a respectable 22–7 win-loss record, some losses have been alarmingly one-sided: 6–3, 6–1 against Ostapenko; a double 6–3 against Andreeva; 6–2, 7–5 to Eala in Miami; and the recent loss to Gauff. In each, Swiatek’s body language was muted, her on-court presence diminished, and her post-match comments often raw and uncertain.

“For sure I feel heavy, and you are like forcing everything instead of going by intuition,” she admitted. “Usually I didn’t have to think about it much… but for the last weeks it hasn’t been that easy. I’ve been forcing myself to go lower, to be more precise with my feet, because it’s not coming naturally.”

“I wasn’t really sure what I had in my toolbox. I didn’t even have a plan B because nothing worked today. I didn’t play well even in the games I won,” she added. “I think I was pushing too much mentally—more than I should have, tennis-wise.”

Even after a cathartic revenge win over Madison Keys—coming back from a bagel to triumph—it failed to serve as the turning point it promised to be. Swiatek faltered again in her next match, and questions continued to mount.

Her woes are compounded by how brilliant her 2024 clay season was. She swept titles in both Rome and Madrid, meaning that in 2025, she has a mountain of ranking points to defend. Already, she has slipped in Stuttgart, falling in the quarterfinals to nemesis Jelena Ostapenko. In Madrid, where she was defending the title, her semifinal exit means further losses. Sabalenka has overtaken her, and others in the chasing pack are closing fast.

All eyes now turn to Rome, the final test before Paris. If Swiatek cannot summon her best tennis there, her status as the clay-court queen—and her psychological edge over the field—may evaporate before she even steps onto Court Philippe-Chatrier.

At 23, Swiatek now faces the first true crossroads of her career. The pressure is immense, the expectations suffocating. But champions are forged in adversity, and Roland Garros may yet provide her with the redemption arc she desperately needs.