“Coach, THANK YOU” – Swiatek parts ways with Wiktorowski, also pulls out of Wuhan Open

World No 1 Iga Swiatek has parted ways with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. The development comes a few days before the Wuhan Open, a WTA 1000 tournament she was supposed to compete in but has now pulled out of.

Wiktorowski, the 43-year-old coach from Poland, joined his compatriot Swiatek’s team towards the end of 2021. At the time, Swiatek had only one Grand Slam and never reached the world No 1 spot in the WTA rankings.

He guided her to 19 more titles, including four Majors, and the Olympic bronze in Paris this year. Also, Swiatek climbed to the summit of the WTA singles rankings under Wiktorowski’s aegis. She has now spent a total of 123 weeks as a top-ranked player.

“After three years of the greatest achievements in my career, together with my coach Tomasz Wiktorowski we decided to part ways,” Swiatek wrote on Instagram on Friday. “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. 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 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.”

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Wiktorowski has previously worked with Pole Agnieszka Radwanska (2011-18) and Serb Olga Danilovic (2019-20).

He helped Radwanska reach a career-high ranking of world No 2, play the 2012 Wimbledon final (lost to Serena Williams), make semi-finals at Grand Slam on four other occasions, and win the Year-end Championship in 2015.

However, the 43-year-old’s coaching career touched unprecedented heights during his partnership with Swiatek.

Coach, THANK YOU, I wish you all the best.”

Iga Swiatek

I know that you would like to rest after these three years of hard work and traveling a lot and spend some well deserved time with your loved ones and I hope you’ll get what you need.”

Having trained under three Polish coaches, Tomasz Wiktorwoski, Piotr Sierzputowski, and Michal Kaznowski, Swiatek is now on the lookout for a non-Polish teacher.

“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.”

Swiatek won’t travel to Wuhan

As a consequence of the split, Iga Swiatek has withdrawn her name from Wuhan Open, the tournament returning to the WTA 1000 schedule after 2019. The organisers confirmed her withdrawal on Friday.

This is notably Swiatek’s second successive withdrawal from a WTA 1000 event. A few days ago, she decided to not participate in the China Open held in Beijing.

The five-time Grand Slam champion hasn’t competed on the Tour since the US Open, where she bowed out from the quarter-finals.

Swiatek went past the likes of Kamilla Rakhimova, Ena Shibahara, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Liudmila Samsonova in New York without dropping a set before she lost in straight sets to eventual finalist Jessica Pegula, the seed No 6, in last eight.

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