“It’s just the semifinal of a tournament” – Far from the fuss, Swiatek quietly builds the player she wants to be
Far from calling her wins over Marta Kostyuk and Diana Shnaider proof of a Toronto turnaround, Iga Swiatek downplayed the results, insisting instead that a quieter plan with Francisco Roig and a deliberate off-court reset are simply, finally, becoming habit.
Iga Swiatek, Toronto 2026 | © Imago / PsNewz
Iga Swiatek beat Marta Kostyuk 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 and Diana Shnaider 6-2, 6-1 in successive rounds to reach the semi-finals of Toronto, two results that read like confirmation of a player finding her level again after the toughest Grand Slam season of her career. Swiatek herself was not interested in the framing.
The world No. 8 has not been beyond a quarter-final at a major all year. She lost to Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January, then saw both of her Grand Slam title defenses end early: beaten by Kostyuk in the French Open fourth round in June, and by Alexandra Eala in the Wimbledon third round in July, a result that dropped her outside the world’s top five for the first time since June 2025.
It all stays the same. I’m really trying to focus on the next match, and the girls are playing great.
She had also not reached a single tour-level final anywhere in 2026 before arriving in Toronto, a season-long drought that made the wins over Kostyuk and Shnaider look, from the outside, like the turning point everyone had been waiting for.
Asked directly whether she felt entitled to raise her expectations again after saying, post-Wimbledon, that she had not been playing at a high enough level to hold herself to a high standard, she gave the shortest answer of her week in Toronto. “Nothing changes,” she said. “It’s just the semifinal of a tournament.”
Pressed on the contrast with how she had talked around Wimbledon, she drew a distinction between circumstance and form. “Playing as a defending champion is just different,” she said. “So for sure it’s not an easy experience, especially on Wimbledon. That’s probably what I meant. But now, no, it all stays the same. I’m really trying to focus on the next match, and the girls are playing great.”
The refusal to declare herself back or close to her real level is consistent with how she has talked about the work behind these results all week. Asked what had allowed her to play with more patience and poise in Toronto, she traced it to a plan built with Francisco Roig rather than to any single win. “That was the goal from the beginning, when I started working with Francis,” she said. “This period of Grand Slams in summer, and important tournaments for me, and playing on clay with all the fuss around that I usually have there, sometimes that’s not helping.”
I feel like it’s already got more into my habit, and it became more natural, and that’s literally how I want to play
“Here I feel like it’s already got more into my habit, and it became more natural, and that’s literally how I want to play. I feel like I was playing a little bit too flat and too fast sometimes last year, making risky decisions, and this is more my game.” She added that the tournament itself had helped: “It’s a nice tournament where there’s not much fuss around, like you can really focus on your job.”
That absence of fuss extended beyond the court. Swiatek described a week in Greece after Wimbledon in which she deliberately stepped away from the sport altogether. “It was seven or eight days. I was in Greece with my friends, so it was quite fun, and for sure, some time without even thinking about tennis,” she said. “It was a good time to just relax and live a different life than the tennis one.”
Svitolina next
In Toronto, that same instinct showed up in smaller ways: a museum visit, time spent reading between matches, a deliberate effort to see the cities she travels to rather than stay inside a hotel loop. “I try to discover these cities that I go to, or visit some nice places,” she said. “I think I’m good at having that balance.”
The clearest evidence that the plan is working came not from her words but from a single point in the fourth round, at 3-1 up a double break against Kostyuk, when she read her opponent’s forehand down the line before it was hit. “I think I guessed pretty well that she was going to play forehand down the line, and I read the point well, and that gave me the advantage,” she said. “I just for sure want to fight till the end of every point. I could also win points from defense, so I’m really happy about that.”
None of it, in Swiatek’s own account, adds up to a verdict – not even a semi-final against Elina Svitolina, the one player who has beaten her twice already this season, including in the Rome semi-final in May. “The girl I might play next, I lost to this season, so I can keep the expectations for sure low, just focus on myself”.
