By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Monday, March 3, 2025
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Tennis Paradise is the panacea to cure listless losses stressing Iga Swiatek, says Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport.
Meeting the media in a Zoom call last week to promote Tennis Channel’s first-ball-to-last ball BNP Paribas Open coverage starting Wednesday at 1 p.m. Eastern time, TC analyst Davenport detailed why Swiatek struggled on the Middle East swing—and why she believes the defending champion will turn it up in Indian Wells.
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Former world No. 1 in singles and doubles, Davenport said clear signs of stress were evident in Swiatek’s face and body language during her 6-3, 6-3 loss to Mirra Andreeva in Dubai that followed a 6-3, 6-1 shellacking at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko in the Doha semifinals.
“When Iga plays, there are certain players where you feel like they can’t help but wear their emotions, and you get a really good sense of Iga if you are looking into her eyes,” Davenport told the media. “For whatever reason and we have no idea kind of what has been going on, but she just looks more stressed out on the court.
“Whether that’s because maybe the results haven’t been there or the change of coach, I don’t know. So I’m speculating. She just doesn’t look as calm or at ease on the court when things kind of get a little bit close as she has in the past when she plays her best tennis.”
Though Swiatek has won Indian Wells in two of the last three years, she’s facing more questions in her Palm Springs return.
After successfully defending her Doha championship, Swiatek carried a 14-2 record into the 2024 Indian Wells—and unleashed dominance on Tennis Paradise last spring. Swiatek swept through the field without surrendering a set dispatching Danielle Collins, Linda Noskova, Yulia Putintseva, Caroline Wozniacki, Marta Kostyuk and Maria Sakkari in the 2024 final.
Swiatek has won 16 of her last 17 BNP Paribas Open matches.
It’s a different Swiatek, who will launch her title defense this week. Working with new coach Wim Fissette, Swiatek has tried to impose her speed and spin control on heavy hitters. But her last three losses—a heart-breaking 7-6-in-the-third-set Australian Open semifinal defeat to Madison Keys and straight-set sweeps to Ostapenko and Andreeva—have come against players who can command the center of the court and repeatedly beat the speedy Pole with drives down the line.
Davenport says Indian Wells is a “perfect” court for Swiatek for a few different reasons.
Conditions are slower and the court is grittier which affords Swiatek the time she likes to set up for her forehand and the fact it’s in her altitude means the ball flies a bit. Swiatek’s heavy topspin plays well in the desert where she can dive-bomb forehands into the corners with control while flatter hitters sail shots long in the thinner air.
Then there’s Swiatek’s confidence in Tennis Paradise where she’s been so successful over the last three years and Davenport says it’s a remedy to rev up her winning ways.
“She is just looking a little bit kind of pressed out there. Sometimes it only takes one tournament, one match, one set, something that clicks in for a player and things start to turn around,” Davenport said of Swiatek. “She’s fortunate she’s coming into one of her favorite tournaments, the tournament she’s been so wildly successful at. A lot of times those kind of good emotions can kind of flip the switch also.
“The court is perfect for her. It gives her time. Similar to Alcaraz, she still hits big enough. She can hit through the conditions. But mentally that is the biggest challenge for her. Is she fresh? Is she confident? Does she believe going in that she can play her best tennis and win one?
“Similar to Sabalenka where she’s playing to win Grand Slams, she was very disappointed to not win the Australian Open or to lose that match to Madison. She had it there for a period of time; let it slip away. Again, another player that didn’t play great in the Middle East swing.”
To gauge Swiatek’s confidence level in her early matches, watch her body language between points, says Davenport, who believes it reveals how the former No. 1 is truly feeling.
“So she’ll come in want and needing to do well I think just to try and get back to No. 1 also, keep that in reach,” Davenport said. “We’ll have to see what her mindset is at.
“I always say look at her and how she’s comporting herself out on the court, how is she on the practice court, is she relaxed, because she is one you can kind of see pretty early on how she’s feeling.”
