Iga Swiatek sweeps past Cocciaretto, sets up a rematch with Naomi Osaka on clay in Rome

 

Iga Swiatek defeated Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1, 6-0 in 65 minutes Sunday to reach the Rome fourth round for the fifth time. She joined No. 15 seed Naomi Osaka, who earlier in the day scored an equally dominant win over No. 19 seed Diana Shanider to advance to her third straight Round of 16 in Rome.

Osaka needed just 54 minutes to dispatch Shnaider, dropping only three games in a 6-1, 6-2 victory.

As a result, the two multi-time Grand Slam champions -- who account for 10 Major titles combined -- will meet in a marquee fourth-round matchup at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. It will be their fourth meeting at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level and their first since 2024. Swiatek leads the head-to-head 2-1.

Their most recent clash was an instant classic: a second-round thriller at Roland Garros in which the then No. 1-ranked Swiatek outlasted Osaka 7-6 (1), 1-6, 7-5 after saving a match point en route to a third straight French Open title.

The now-World No. 3 expects a similar challenge this time.

"She's a great player," Swiatek said in her on-court interview after beating Cocciaretto. "We've played a lot and (had) a really tough match at Roland Garros two years ago, so I know what she can bring and how well she can play when she feels the ball. So I'll prepare technically and I'll be ready."

If you're saying to yourself, "That scoreline looks familiar," you're right. Swiatek and Cocciaretto met for the first time last year in the second round in Rome, and Swiatek won handily, dropping just one game.

Sunday was a case of wash, rinse, repeat for the three-time Rome champion. She stormed out of the gates, breaking in the second game and again in the sixth to take a commanding 5-1 lead. Moments later, she closed the opening set the same way she started it -- with an ace.

Cocciaretto appeared on track to secure a rare hold while trailing 2-0 in the second set before a brief rain delay halted play for a few minutes. Swiatek won four straight points after play resumed, finishing the game with a forehand winner to break for 3-0.

Swiatek won the last nine games against a seemingly hampered Cocciaretto, who received a brief visit from the physio late in the first set. But regardless of Cocciaretto's condition, it was a much-needed show of dominance from Swiatek, whose focus throughout was on her execution.

"I just wanted to be solid and focus on myself no matter what the score was," Swiatek said. "Sometimes at the end of the match it's easy for the opponent to let go and just go for it. So I wanted to just play as I planned and how I played the whole match, and at the end it worked. I really liked how I played today. My serve was good, I was opening up the court, so it was really nice."

Cocciaretto did let go at the end, saving three match points and earning her first three break points in the final game, but Swiatek didn't waver. Instead, she converted her fourth match point to secure the win. Swiatek finished with 17 winners to 11 unforced errors and won 72% of her service points, a level she'll hope to carry into her meeting with Osaka.

If there was one word to describe Osaka's week, stunning might do the trick -- first at the Met Gala, and then on court, especially on Sunday. In what was perhaps her most complete performance of the 2026 season, Osaka dismantled Shnaider, who reached the Rome quarterfinals last year before falling to eventual champion Jasmine Paolini in three sets.

Like Swiatek, Osaka broke in the second game and again in the sixth for a 5-1 lead before taking the first set in 24 minutes. She continued to face little resistance in the second, unleashing a backhand winner from outside the court to help her break for 3-2, then breaking again in the penultimate game to more within one game of victory.

wtatennis.com

Finally today truly felt like vintage Iga (yes Cociaretto doesn't really have weapons to hurt her but still).

She kept her focus from start to finish even made sure not to get broken and punctuated it with a bagel.

That's the front runner mentality we're all familiar with. 

Feels like a breath of fresh air, even if it doesn't make for the most entertaining of matches.

I think Iga needed a win like today. 

Just to remind herself how well her game works on clay and how good she feels on it.

Beyond great to see.

Of course with this win she set up a rematch of sorts with Naomi Osaka on clay (when they met in round 2 of Roland Garros few years ago it was an instant classic) and one people talk about till this day.

Hard to say if this one will live up to it, but if they can bring at least half the level they showed in that match it'll be popcorn worthy.

And I for one can't wait.

The only thing that would make this better is if they were playing in a final instead of 4th round.

Win or lose I hope Iga takes some confidence from it in time for Roland Garros.

Excited would be an understatement. 

Is it tomorrow yet?.

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek hangs tough in first match back in Rome

 

ROME -- No. 4 seed Iga Swiatek took the scenic route into the Internazionali BNL d’Italia third round, surviving a valiant comeback from Caty McNally to win 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3 in 2 hours, 43 minutes.

At 6-1, 3-1, the three-time Rome champion Swiatek appeared to be cruising through her opener. Her topspin was jumping off the court, she was striking a series of forehand winners, and she was breaking down McNally’s drive backhand in extended rallies. But she squandered three break points for a 4-1 lead with cheap unforced errors, and from that point on the match turned into a battle.

"For sure, not an easy first match," Swiatek said in her press conference. "The conditions were kind of heavy. The ball was flying slow. So we had many long rallies, many moments where you could create a lot on the court."

McNally -- the only player to win a set from Swiatek at Wimbledon last year -- had never beaten the Polish star at pro level. But she did have a memorable victory over Swiatek on clay -- a 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 comeback in the 2018 Roland Garros junior event. As McNally began to impose her touch on the match, she threatened a similar turnaround.

Swiatek served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the second set and reached 30-30 both times, only to lapse into errors, getting broken on backhands that sailed well over the baseline on each occasion. Afterwards, she vowed that those would be learning experiences.

"Honestly, I want to watch this game and see if there's something that I did wrong," she said when asked about her attempts to serve out the win. "I'm not sure even what I did ... I don't exactly remember what happened in that game. But I will watch the match. I'll watch it and I'll see."

As her accuracy wavered, McNally grew more effective at drawing mistakes from Swiatek with her defense. McNally’s slice had little impact through the first set and a half, but her ability to reset points with it became a key factor in turning the second set.

In the third set, it nearly unraveled again for Swiatek. She broke McNally for 3-1, but missed a chance to extend the lead to 4-1 with a double fault, then handed the break straight back with a string of errors.

But this time, Swiatek regained her focus. As McNally held a point to level at 4-4, Swiatek swatted away a return to deny her. Two dialed-in clean winners followed, and then the break for 5-3. There would be no repeat of her second-set travails. Solid offensive patterns brought Swiatek to match point, and she converted as McNally sent a forehand just wide.

"I was really happy with the first set, then I made some mistakes," said Swaitek. "Also Caty, I felt like she was playing one more ball in, really grinding in defense. I needed to be patient. I'm happy at the end of the match I was solid and I used the right balls to attack, but was also patient enough to stay in the rally."

Swiatek will next face either No. 28 seed Emma Navarro or home hope Elisabetta Cocciaretto

 wtatennis.com

Well this match turned into an unnecessary  rollercoaster after a very straight forward first set. 

Should have won it in straights after serving for it twice. I swear it's all tied to confidence at this point, she has lost that ruthlessness she was so good at. 

But the rest of her game is still there for her on clay. 

Just needs the belief back. 

And more matches, sadly she hasn't had as many matches on clay as usual with losing early in Stuttgart and withdrawing from Madrid. 

She's had a total of 5 matches compared to others who have had double that. 

I think with every match things will get better. I can already see a lot of the Iga of old with the new coach at the helm. 

Proud of the way Iga got her focus back after losing the first. 

Iga from earlier this year probably would have still been thinking about the mistakes and lost opportunities. 

And would have gotten frustrated and lost.  

While I'm still concerned about her inability to close things out straightforwardly, it's definitely something that will come with more match play.

I'm taking a lot of positives from this one and treating this match as McNally playing Iga into some form. 

After all last time they played 3 sets against each other Iga won Wimbledon.

Next match should be a lot easier in terms of comfort.

Jazda!.

Iga Swiatek withdraws mid match in Madrid due to illness

Tough scenes for Iga, truly rotten luck to get food poisoning (there was also talk of a circulating virus in Madrid). 

But the culprit for many seems to have been bad shrimp at a particular restaurant. 

Sad part is it's not the first time this happened in Madrid. Seems food quality at this tournament isn't the best.

This was only Iga's 3rd retirement in a match, not bad when you consider how many she has already played in her young career. 

Clearly Iga was feeling good on court and wanted more from this tournament, but the illness didn't allow her to do so thus the emotional photos.

Really proud of Iga for fighting and taking it to 3 despite feeling very clearly ill.

Hopefully she feels better in a few days and can start fresh in one of her fave places at the Foro Italico in Rome (where she is a 3 time champion). 

Hopefully she'll get a decent draw.

Keep your head up champ, you'll comeback stronger!.

Onward to Rome.

 

Iga Swiatek starts off Madrid with an opening win

Two of the Mutua Madrid Open's 2025 semifinalists got their 2026 campaigns under way on Thursday, with contrasting results. No. 4 seed Iga Swiatek, the 2024 champion, enjoyed a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over qualifier Daria Snigur in just 61 minutes. However, No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina fell 6-3, 6-4 to Hungary's Anna Bondar

Just 24 hours earlier, Snigur had pulled off one of the wildest wins of the tournament to date, ousting Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(13) in the sixth-longest third-set regular tiebreak of the century so far. But the Ukrainian, competing in the first clay-court WTA main draw of her career, was unable to impose her flat hitting on Swiatek.

Consecutive double faults in Snigur's opening service game led to an immediate break, and set the tone for the rest of the match. Swiatek landed 16 winners to Snigur's seven, while the latter was undone by 22 unforced errors. A slow start to the second set resulted in the Pole trailing 2-0, but she quickly righted the ship to concede just seven more points in the next six games.

Swiatek's third-round opponent will be No. 31 seed Ann Li, who defeated qualifier and American compatriot Alycia Parks 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3.

wtatennis.com

Hard to judge Iga's level in this one given her opponent didn't put up much resistance. Facing Ann Li could prove more of a challenge and make for a more interesting match.

But a simple start like this is always good in the early rounds of any tournament.

Iga Swiatek falls short in another quarterfinal in Stuttgart

Lot's of positives to take away for Iga despite another quarterfianl loss. 

Improvement was evident, solid from the baseline, more patience building points and more positive body language during unforced errors. 

Serve is still a work in progress (and it really broke down in the 3rd) but that's to be expected with her tweaking it and changing the motion. 

But overall game looking much more solid, things are trending in the right direction with time things will start to click. It's definitely the best I've seen her play this year thus far.

As Iga herself has mentioned things won't happen over night, even specifically pointed out in the most match interview that she is a player who needs matches and wins in order for her game to flow (very much like her idol Rafa). 

Confidence will be the big thing when facing the top 10. 

Right now she doesn't have that so it's hard to trust anything with her game especially on serve. 

I will always wonder had she gone up 3-0 in the 3rd would the match have turned out different. Certainly would have helped the confidence factor. 

So will winning a match from a set up again, same goes for the quarterfinal curse. If she could break through to one final before Roland Garros it'd do a world of good. 

And I think the best chance for that will be Rome. I don't hold much hope for Madrid due to the altitude, but hopefully she can win a few matches just to build on things. 

It'll be interesting if outside clay conditions will help her out more vs the indoor clay. 

Better quality clay coupled with outdoor conditions might just make her feel more sure of her movement and allow her to actually slide instead of tripping and falling as she did in Stuttgart (twice).

While this was another disappointing loss I'm also taking under account Mirra Andreeva's confidence having just won a title in Linz on indoor clay the week prior. 

Hard to win a match when your opponent has confidence in their serve to win them free points while you're fighting for every point with 2nd serves. 

Had she won Iga would have gone back to #3. But ranking will only matter when the wins come, till then we wait and see. 

But I feel encouraged with the new coach, he's trying to make visable technical changes and I think with time Iga will be able to implement them better and it'll start paying off in matches.

On to Madrid we go.

Jazda Iga trust the process.  

Iga Swiatek starts clay season with new raquet and a win in Stuttgart

Iga Swiatek arrived in Stuttgart with a 103-15 career record and 10 titles on clay, fueling anticipation for the former World No. 1’s return to the surface Wednesday against local favorite Laura Siegemund.

After beating Siegemund 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hour and 30 minutes, she made it a successful start to both clay season and her partnership with new coach Francisco Roig, improving to 104-15 on the surface and to 1-0 with Roig to open their collaboration on solid footing.

“Even though I’m an experienced player, it’s still a new thing for me,” Swiatek said in her on-court interview. “I haven’t changed coaches often in my career, but I feel it’s always exciting because you get to know different points of view from a person that is supposed to be with you every day on the court.

“So I think you need to be open-minded and try to soak in this new approach. And I feel like with Francisco, we have a similar view in terms of how I should play. The other thing is actually doing it on court. So this will, I think, take a little bit more time, but the idea is there, the attitude and work are there, so I’m happy to start this process.”

With the win, the two-time Stuttgart champion is through to her fourth quarterfinal of the season, where she will face the winner of the second-round match between No. 6 seed Mirra Andreeva and Alycia Parks. She’ll be looking to reach her first semifinal of the year and snap a streak of four straight quarterfinal losses dating back to Wuhan last fall.

For now, she can take positives from an opening-match win at what has long been one of her most successful tournaments.

“I’m really happy to be back on clay, especially here,” Swiatek said. “I love playing here, so it’s really nice to be back. It wasn’t the easiest match because Laura wants to change the rhythm a lot, so it wasn’t like the practices. It was the opposite, with a lot of drop shots and slices that you need to adjust to. So I’m happy that I did well and kept focused on my tasks.”

That big-picture approach guided Swiatek through a match that was, at times, less straightforward than the scoreline suggests.

The World No. 4 started fast, holding to love and then firing a backhand winner to break for 2-0. She won 12 of the first 15 points to build a 3-0 lead.

Siegemund briefly flipped the set with a love hold and a break to get back on serve at 3-2. But Swiatek, who needed three break points to secure her first break, followed the same recipe in the next game, converting her third chance with a forehand winner to regain control at 4-2.

It was the first of three straight games she won, closing the set with another backhand winner to secure a third break.

After five consecutive holds to open the second set, Swiatek again struck first, breaking to love for a 4-2 lead. Siegemund again responded with a break of her own for 4-3, but the German’s rally was short-lived as Swiatek won the final two games to finish the match.

It was far from a perfect performance -- seven double faults, 27 unforced errors and landing just over 50% of her first serves -- but there were positives as well. She broke Siegemund five times, hit 22 winners and won 78% of her first-serve points.

She’ll look to carry those positives into her next match against either Andreeva or Parks. She is 1-2 against Andreeva, having lost both meetings last year in Dubai and Indian Wells, and has yet to face Parks.

 wtatennis.com

Not a bad start from Iga considering the longer break, switching coaches and changing the motion on her serve. As well as her first match on the clay.

Very much a work in progress. 

I don't put much stock on the indoor clay tournaments, because the conditions of both Madrid (with it's altitude) and Rome both being out door are completely different. 

But making it past the quarterfinal  here maybe even a final would be a great confidence booster for Iga regardless. 

Won't be easy with Andreeva and possibly Rybakina in the semis, but what better way to see where you are with your progress then testing yourself against those 2. 

Madrid and especially Rome will be the real litmus test before Roland Garros. 

Step by step, it's just really great seeing Iga back on clay again and looking happy..

Jazda!

WTA Finals looking for a new host as contract with Saudi Arabia comes to an end at the end of the year

Ben Rothenberg, one of the world's most renowned tennis journalists, announced that Saudi Arabia will no longer host the 2027 WTA Finals starting in 2027. The tournament, which concludes the year-long competition, will instead be held in North America. Here are the details.

"We signed a three-year contract, but we would gladly stay here longer than we originally planned," WTA Director General Portia Archer said some time ago, adding in "The Athletic" that talks are underway to extend the cooperation beyond 2024-2026.

According to Rothenberg, the WTA's talks with the Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation have ended in failure. This effectively means a move, and the organization is already searching for a new host for one of the most prestigious events on the tennis calendar, featuring eight of the season's best players.

Charlotte to take over the WTA Finals?!

According to media reports, North America is the new destination. Charlotte is the most frequently mentioned destination . Interestingly, the WTA Finals have been held on this continent for many years in the past, and outside the United States, the world's best tennis players have visited Mexico, among other places.

In previous years, the tournament that ends each season was also held in Schengen, Singapore, Istanbul, Doha, Madrid and Munich.

The previous tournament was won by Jelena Rybakina, who defeated Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6(0) in the final. In 2023, Iga Świątek emerged victorious, defeating Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 in the deciding set. In 2015, Agnieszka Radwańska triumphed, leaving Petra Kvitová in the dust—6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

onet.pl

Having the tournament in America would certainly be advantageous for the American players not so much for the Europeans and vice versa. 

But given what's currently going on in the world with the war in the middle east, not to mention Saudi Arabia's horrendous human rights record and everything associated with that. 

It's definitely for the best that it relocates where ever it ends up being hosted. 

Even if it takes a few years to find a permanent home, it'll be better in the long run for the WTA and it's athletes.