'Maybe she needs to sink to rise again' – Justine Henin sees Roland-Garros as Iga Swiatek’s breaking point

Justine Henin suggested that Roland-Garros could be the stage where Iga Swiatek "perhaps finally sinks," before resetting and starting fresh for the next swing. The Pole failed once again to defend a title – this time at the Rome Open – and is now preparing to defend her Roland-Garros crown.

Since the beginning of her career, Swiatek made her breakthrough by winning the French Open in 2020 at just 19 years old. Unlike other surprise Grand Slam champions, Swiatek quickly became consistent on Tour, eventually reaching world No. 1. She now boasts five Slam titles (four of them at Roland-Garros) and a total of 22 career titles, 10 of which have come on clay.

However, since her 2024 French Open title, Swiatek hasn’t reached another WTA final, losing in seven straight semifinals. After failing to defend her titles in both Madrid and Rome, she’s set to fall to at least world No. 4 by the start of Roland-Garros – or No. 5 if Paolini wins the Rome title.

"It wasn’t a problem until now. Now we are on the clay that she loves so much, approaching the tournament that she has won four times, if there was a time to find herself, it was now," Henin told Eurosport France. "Now, it will take on another level. Against Collins [in Rome], she went through a very complex emotional state. She arrived at the press conference with red eyes. You can feel that it hurts, deep down."

“I think one of the bases is her very perfectionist side. She wants to do things in a certain way. The status she has had, the domination she has had, especially on clay. We felt at certain moments in her young career how much pressure it was sometimes difficult to bear."

Henin herself had a similar path early in her career, winning Roland-Garros in 2003 at age 21, and then clinching three consecutive titles in 2005, 2006, and 2007. She won four French Open titles overall and seven Grand Slam titles in total, along with four Tier I (now WTA 1000) clay-court titles – making it 13 clay titles in 16 career finals on the surface.

"The fact of feeling that her game on other surfaces was not evolving as quickly as she thought or wanted weighed [on her]," added the 7-time major champion Justine Henin. "Her victory at the US Open [in 2022] was not enough to free her. Something was gradually setting in. There is competition that is progressing.

"All of this puts pressure on her. She's in a vicious circle. It's not surprising to see her struggling. But perhaps this is the moment when it needs to explode, so that things come out, so that she can analyse, understand what is happening to the great perfectionist that she is,” the former world No. 1 claimed. "We say to ourselves that it's perhaps there, at Roland-Garros, that she'll finally sink before, perhaps, starting again."