Iga Swiatek announces major coaching change: ‘I’m ready to take the next step’

World No 1 Iga Swiatek has announced she has split with her long-time coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.

The five-time grand slam champion said she is looking to appoint a non-Polish coach because she is “ready to take the next step in my career”.

Swiatek and Wiktorowski have worked together over the past three seasons as the 23-year-old established herself as the best player in the world, spending the past 123 weeks at the top of the rankings.

With Wiktorowski, Swiatek has won the last three French Opens in a row and lifted her first non-clay grand slam at the US Open in 2022.

But she has not reached the semi-finals of a grand slam other than the French Open since then and there is room for improvement in her game.

Wiktorowski had been part of Swiatek’s close-knit team that includes fitness coach and physio Maciej Ryszczuk and psychologist Daria Abramowicz.

After a busy summer, Swiatek did not play the Korea Open due to fatigue and withdrew from the China Open in Beijing citing personal reasons and said she is giving herself time to appoint a new coach.

“After three years of the greatest achievements in my care together with my coach Tomasz Wiktorowski we decided to part ways,” said Swiatek, who has also pulled out of next week’s Wuhan Open.

“I want to start with a big thank you and appreciating our work together. Coach Wiktorowski joined my team for three seasons, when I strongly needed changes and a fresh approach to my game.

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“His experience, analytical and strategic attitude and enormous knowledge about tennis helped us to achieve things I’ve never dreamed of only a few months after we started working together. Our main goal was to become the No 1 player in the world and coach Wiktorowski was the one who said it first.

“We aimed very high, we headed to every tournament with a clear goal to win it. Together with coach Wiktorowski we won many tournaments and four grand slams.

“Coach, thank you, I wish you all the best. I know that you would like to rest after these three years of hard work and travelling a lot and spend some well deserved time with your loved ones and I hope you’ll get what you need.

“Due to this important change on my team, I give myself a couple of weeks to start a cooperation with a new coach. I’m in the middle of first talks with coaches from abroad (non-Polish), because I’m ready to take the next step in my career. I will let you know when I make a decision.”

While she won big hard-court titles in Qatar and Indian Wells this season, Swiatek was knocked out in the third round of the Australian Open and the quarter-finals of the US Open.

Aryna Sabalenka has won three of the last four hard-court grand slam titles, including the Australian Open and US Open this season, and has closed the gap to Swiatek in the rankings.

However, Sabalenka’s 15-match winning run was snapped by Karolina Muchova in the China Open quarter-finals on Friday. Muchova won 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-4 for her third straight win against the four-time grand slam champion.

Meanwhile, Swiatek explained her absense rfom the Wuhan Open and said: “After an important change in my sports team, I decided to withdraw from the tournament in Wuhan.

“I’m really sorry for fans in China. I hope you understand that I need some time.”