Iga Swiatek struggled physically during her 5-7, 1-6 defeat to Maja Chwalinska in the Wuhan Open semi-finals.
The Pole refused to retire from the match, though, wanting to give her countrywoman the satisfaction of winning their semi-final on the court. Despite struggling as much as she did against Chwalinska, Swiatek then planned to travel to China for the Ningbo Open, looking to keep her WTA Finals qualification hopes alive.
At that point, former world number one Andy Roddick stepped in, calling for Swiatek to shut down her season during the latest episode of his ‘Served‘ podcast. The six-time Grand Slam champion has now withdrawn from the Ningbo Open and ended her 2026 campaign early.
Swiatek was likely listening to her body, not Roddick, when making that decision. But what exactly did the 2003 US Open champion say about Swiatek?
Andy Roddick told Iga Swiatek to forget about qualifying for the WTA Finals and get healthy
“Here’s what I think. Hopefully, if you’ve listened to this show long enough, you understand that I am constantly beating the drum of how great Iga has been. Listen, here is someone who either we don’t see on TV, ultimately disrespected over and over again, based on her accomplishments thus far,” said Roddick.
“We see her when she’s getting upset or when she’s in the semis or finals of a Slam. As many Slams as [Stefan] Edberg, [Boris] Becker, more than [Maria] Sharapova and Kim [Clijsters], she is already great and will forever live as an all-time great.
Give us one bold prediction for the final months of the 2026 tennis season!
“If there is a leg injury and enough mental stress to cry your way through a loss in Wuhan, I don’t know that I give a s— about making World Tour Finals if I’m Iga [Swiatek]. If I’m on her team, I don’t know if I can deal in being short-sighted.
“At a certain point in our careers, our strengths, which for Iga is she goes and takes her lunch pail and her hard hat to work every day, and she cares so much every single day. She is so micro-focused on every single detail; it’s served her well up until this point, but at some point there has to be a breath.”
Roddick warned Swiatek against playing on an injured leg and suggested that taking a break would give her a better chance of winning a Grand Slam in 2027 than overplaying to guarantee a higher seed.
“If you go and play on a leg that wasn’t feeling well two days earlier, in the kind of, don’t want to say the dead time of the year, but if you’re a six-time Slam winner, the most unimportant parts of the year. If you’re a six-time Slam winner, you deal in wins and losses at Slams and number-one rankings,” he said.
“Your focus and your priority is not am I 10, am I eight; it’s getting ready so you can ramp up and try to win a Slam next year. Do I change her odds of winning a major by many percentage points, like two or three, if she’s seeded 10 or she’s seeded seven, my answer is no.
“Do I raise her chances of winning a Slam by eight to 10% if she’s physically healthy, mentally rested, and approaches this year not worn out? Yes. So, in my mind, the math works on that trade-off.”
Roddick will be happy to hear that Swiatek decided against playing any more tennis in 2026. The Pole is now expected to return in January for the United Cup and then the Australian Open.
Swiatek won the United Cup with Poland last year, before losing to the eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open quarter-finals. Only time will tell if she can go a step or two further in 2027.
Iga Swiatek will miss the WTA Finals for the first time since 2020
The Pole has played the last five editions of the WTA Finals. The event wasn’t held in 2020, but she didn’t qualify the year before. Swiatek is a former WTA Finals champion, but hasn’t always played her best tennis at the year-end championships.
Iga Swiatek’s WTA Finals record (12-6)
- 2021 – Round robin
- 2022 – Semi-final
- 2023 – Champion
- 2024 – Round robin
- 2025 – Round robin
She won’t have a chance to improve upon her 12-6 record in 2026, having ended her season early. Perhaps a return to the year-end finals and a second title at the event will be a target she’ll set for herself in 2027.
