Iga Swiatek is no longer trailing behind her competitors on the WTA Tour, months after sustaining a sharp drop in form. Having changed her coaching camp and endured a controversial doping scandal, the Pole returned for the 2025 season and commenced her tour-level calendar at the Australian Open. After winning her second-round match and taking a step further to claim the ‘Happy Slam’ title, Swiatek noted a peculiar feature about Sydney that trumps Melbourne. Her comments, however, were not well received by the locals.

The Polish star landed for the season-opening Slam on the back of a second consecutive runner-up finish at the United Cup, where she represented Team Poland. Merely weeks after switching coaches – she parted ways with Tomasz Wiktorowski and added Naomi Osaka‘s ex-coach Wim Fissette as her new coach – Swiatek suffered brutal backlash after testing positive for a banned substance in an out-of-competition sample. Unlike in the case of another star player, Jannik Sinner, the Pole immediately faced the music.

An independent tribunal, although accepted her plea of unintentional contamination, slapped her with a one-month ban from the tour. As a result, the former World No. 1 skipped the entire Asian swing. When she served her sentence and came back for the year-end WTA Finals, Swiatek faced heavy resistance as she exited the event prematurely. Poised to mark her reign outside of the clay courts, the 23-year-old reached the third round of the Melbourne Slam after defeating Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova 6-0, 6-2 in only an hour.

Having achieved a laudable feat of winning 40 matches in the first two rounds at a Grand Slam, a ‘coffee-fanatic’ Swiatek later earned boos from the local crowd after stating her reservations about Melbourne’s coffee stops during an on-court interview. “I gotta say in Sydney I found better coffee shops.”

She, however, quickly made up for her response by saying, “But no no guys it’s not easy for me to fall asleep, so during a Grand Slam my coffee level… a bit lower so I’m drinking before the match I didn’t do the right research so sorry for my answer. Overall in Australia, it’s hard to get wrong coffee.”

Swiatek is down to face Emma Raducanu next and she reserved a few words to term her thoughts on the upcoming clash at Melbourne Park.

Iga Swiatek drops appealing admission ahead of Australian Open encounter with Emma Raducanu

Polish superstar Iga Swaitek is undefeated against former US Open champion Emma Raducanu, having won all three meetings without dropping a set. The duo last clashed in Stuttgart, where Swiatek won the quarterfinal rubber 7-6(2), 6-3. Both players are junior contemporaries who won a Slam as teenagers, the only difference being that Raducanu’s journey has been hampered by several injuries in the follow-up seasons.

Ahead of the much-awaited showdown, Swiatek said of the Briton: “Everybody’s story is different, and everybody struggles with different stuff, but it doesn’t matter. When we’re going to be out there on the court, whoever is going to play better will win, and that’s it. I’ll just focus on tennis. For sure we have different stories, but before the match, I’m not going to think about that. I’ll just prepare based on how she plays now and that’s it.”

For those unaware, Raducanu surpassed her R2 test against Amanda Anisimova in straight sets, but not without facing physical limitations. The Briton notably needed a medical timeout (MTO) during the second set as a result of the heavy stress on her body from the recent string of tour-level meets.

Swiatek and Raducanu will square off for a place in the fourth round of the Melbourne Slam on Saturday, January 18. Who are you backing?