Iga Swiatek's ranking woes deepen after early Rome exit: Top-8 in jeopardy for Roland Garros

Once again, Iga Swiatek failed to defend a title, falling in the third round of the Rome Open against Danielle Collins 1-6, 5-7. The Pole continues to lose ranking points and will see her ranking drop to at least world No. 4 once the tournament is over.

Considering clay is the surface that suits the 5-time Grand Slam champion best, this was also her worst result at a WTA 1000 event since the Cincinnati Open in 2022, where she also fell in the third round. In her subsequent 20 participations in tournaments of this category to date, she reached the semifinals 15 times and won 5 titles, the last one precisely at the Italian Open 2024.

Swiatek will lose 935 ranking points and will have 5,838 points in 4th place, being surpassed by Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula. Swiatek now sees a significant gap to the top of the ranking and it is the first time she has not been in the top two since March 2022.

The 23-year-old will arrive at Roland Garros with more doubts than ever, with a 6-3 record on clay courts this season, well below previous years. In fact, in 2024 she traveled to Roland Garros with a 14-1 record on clay courts and two titles won in Madrid and Rome.

The Polish champion has not reached a final since winning the French Open title in 2024. Since then, she has fallen in seven consecutive semifinals, four of them this year. At the French Open, the pressure will definitely be even greater, as the absolute queen of the tournament in recent years: 4 titles in the previous 5 editions and an impressive record of 35-2 (95%), by far the tournament where Swiatek has her best numbers.

Swiatek could still drop another position in the ranking if local player Jasmine Paolini is crowned champion; the Pole would then appear at world No. 5 starting Monday. If she fails to defend her title at Roland Garros and falls early again, we could see Swiatek even drop out of the top 8 by the end of the clay-court swing.