Iga Swiatek believes it may be even more difficult for any player to dominate the women’s game in 2026.
The Pole won her sixth Grand Slam title with a first Wimbledon win in July, after a difficult clay-court season in which she suffered some unusual losses, before eventually finishing the year ranked No 2, an achievement she is rightly proud of.
All four majors were won by different women in 2025 – the third time that has happened in the past five years – and Swiatek knows the field is getting stronger all the time.
“I think finishing as No 2 is a great achievement,” Swiatek said in an interview with CLAY, also published by RG Media. “I think the level we’re all at got more equal. I think you could see that, especially during the WTA finals, basically, any of us could win this tournament, we really played a lot of tight matches.
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“There are some players that obviously prefer some conditions or others who feel better in this or that part of the season…but I think overall we all are getting better in a really fast way.
“If I would serve, like, 185 kilometres per hour three years ago, I think it would be a game changer, and it would be amazing, but now (that) I actually learned to do that, I realised that girls are serving 195. It’s obviously not only about the speed. It is just an example, but I think tennis is evolving and we’re all presenting a pretty good level now.”
Aryna Sabalenka heads the rankings going into 2026, ahead of Swiatek, with Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, Elena Rybakina and Jess Pegula all tightly packed from No 3 to No 6. Madison Keys, Jasmine Paolini, Mirra Andreeva and Ekaterina Alexandrova round out a high-quality top 10.
Swiatek describes 2025 as the “longest season I ever played”, perhaps not surprising since she played 79 matches, more than any other player on the WTA Tour.
“The season was challenging, but, but I’m super proud of it,” she said. “But I am also happy that it’s done, because I played a lot of matches this year. And the schedule was packed.”
She rounded off the year with a visit to her clothing manufacturer, On, with whom she says she’s closely involved with the design of her outfits, even if she admits she doesn’t say too much. “I’m not an expert,” she laughs.
And having enjoyed a quick holiday in Mauritius, Swiatek has already begun her pre-season training. Now she is focused on peaking at the Australian Open, where victory would make her only the 11th woman ever – and first since Maria Sharapova in 2012, to complete the career Grand Slam of all four majors; Wimbledon, US Open, French Open and Australian Open.
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Swiatek says she is not motivated solely by results, however. “I’ve got to say that most of the amazing things that happen in my career happened when I wasn’t really expecting them and wasn’t really focusing on them,” she said.
“I’m not that kind of person that imagines myself with the trophy or something. I don’t think it would give me a lot of discipline in terms of the work, so I think I’d rather focus on the process. Also, you don’t always have full influence on the results.”
Nevertheless, Swiatek was just one point from reaching the final in Melbourne this year and the 24-year-old knows how close she is to completing the career Grand Slam.
“I don’t set goals like that,” she said. “Obviously it’s something that I dream of and something that I want to happen one day but I’m not going to come to Melbourne and think about it every day.
“I know that there’s seven matches to win and the Grand Slams are two weeks, a lot can happen. So I’m really going to just take it step by step. Just focusing on the pre-season well is the key, and then I’ll see. But for sure, it would be a dream come true.”
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