“You cannot win more points; you can only do 'less good'": Iga Swiatek’s coach explains why clay season is her toughest mental battle

Iga Swiatek's coach, Wim Fissette, reflected on the Pole's 2025 season—in which she won the Wimbledon title while coming from a complicated moment of confidence—following several surprising defeats during the clay swing, including her first loss at Roland Garros since 2021.

Wim Fissette, her coach, values this achievement not only for the title but for the way she defied logic and history. For the Belgian, what happened in London will resonate for decades: "First of all, 2025 will be a year for Iga that goes into the history winning Wimbledon where nobody was expecting that and the way she did it that is something we will think about in 10 and 20 and 30 years this was just like unreal so only even just with this performance like 2025 was was a fantastic year," Fisette said to Break Point.

Fissette is no novice in managing generational talents; legends such as Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka, Angelique Kerber, and Naomi Osaka have passed through his hands. However, working day-to-day with the world number one, he has found a distinctive trait that separates her even from those multi-Grand Slam champions.

It is not just the talent or athletic ability, but a mental consistency that defies what is humanly possible: "I mean she what she achieved as at such a young age like that says a lot about her... the intensity and focus just on on an everyday base it's like something that I keep repeating it's like it it even still surprises me how she's able to do that you know like every practice she brings the same level of intensity".

Despite the excellence, managing continuous success is a titanic task, especially when the bar is set in the stratosphere. The clay season paradoxically became the toughest challenge on a mental level. “I've never been with a player where expectations for a certain season were that high. You go into a season where the year before you won Madrid, Rome, and Paris. You cannot win more points; you can only do 'less good’,” the Belgian coach said. “It's not easy you know like we all know that Coco can play very well on the on the clay we know that Sabalenka can very play very well on the clay".

The team had to reconfigure their mindset after a mid-year slump, transforming the anxiety of defending points into a hunger to evolve. The objective ceased to be protecting the ranking to focus on expanding her tactical arsenal, vital for surviving at the top.

Fissette is clear about it: in the current elite, stagnation is synonymous with regression, and the only way is to accept the risk of change: "It's important - I think this year as well - that she made a good switch into her mindset of like 'okay I want to develop as a player and I want to get better, and it's okay that sometimes I'll make mistakes when I try to do that'. So that mindset is obviously extremely important... because if you don't improve you go backwards that's clear for her".

Technically, the focus of this preseason is surgical and looks directly toward the 2026 Australian Open, the final piece to complete the Career Grand Slam. Fissette and Swiatek are working obsessively on the first two shots: serve and return, seeking to dominate from the start against big hitters like Sabalenka or Rybakina. The intention is for Iga to stop being an open book and feel secure under enemy fire:

"We're actually really focused on first two balls, so serve return plus the next ball it's something, especially if we look at the top eight right now, there are a lot of big servers, big hitters, big returners," Wim Fisette stated. "Just important that Iga becomes better in that area becomes less predictable and also let's say more comfortable when they when the opponents try to attack her from the first ball".

This evolution includes venturing to the net, a territory that Iga used to avoid but is now necessary to close out points on fast courts. They are not looking to convert her into a classic volleyer overnight, but to integrate it organically by leveraging her natural talent. "You can't say okay now like the goal is to play 25 volleys in the next match you need to go step by step and start for example against against player with the lower ranking yeah exactly and then even when you're a bit when you won the first set and you're a bit further in the second set those are moments but those are very important moments that you will have to use to get comfortable in these situations".