Iga Swiatek is leaving Australian Open 2026 with a plan.
After suffering a straight-sets defeat to Elena Rybakina in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, the 24-year-old is aiming to make key adjustments to her game to put her in a better position to hoist the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup when she arrives down under next year.
“I know what I need to improve,” said the six-time major champion, who will resume her quest of completing a career Grand Slam next January.
Still, the two-time AO semifinalist can take positives from her efforts at Melbourne Park. By reaching the last eight, she became the youngest woman to reach six consecutive major quarterfinals since Serena Williams achieved the feat at Wimbledon 2003.
But the 7-5 6-1 loss to Rybakina, who has now won exactly half of their 12 battles, still stings.
“I'm not happy with the results,” Swiatek said. “It was a high-intensity match. First set was tight, [a] few points made the difference. In the second set, she improved the serve, she was going for the shots, and it got much tougher.”
“I wanted to be aggressive on the second serve, so sometimes you will make mistakes but if you want to break, you need to make it in in the moment like that.”
Against the fifth seed, Swiatek made 55 per cent of first serves and struck 10 winners to her rival’s 26. She converted just one of four break point chances and won 27 per cent of points on her return, compared to the 47 per cent won by Rybakina.
Aware that her Kazakh foe can be impenetrable on serve, Swiatek knew she needed to take care of her own service games.
“My serve wasn't the best, so it was hard to do that to keep the score even in the second set,” she admitted.
“It's never been so flawless for me playing on these courts, as they are fast, you know?”
“I'll try next time, anyway.”
When asked to compare her AO 2026 campaign with her run to the AO 2025 semifinals where she held a match point against eventual titlist Madison Keys, Swiatek paused for a beat.
“I felt last year I was playing a bit better,” she said, describing her tennis during both tournaments as “still good”.
“If you want to win, for sure it would be nice to play even better, but as I always said, winning and playing [in] a Slam is tough.”
The Pole said AO 2025 was also different because she had entered the season armed having made tweaks to her game with input from her newly-installed coach Wim Fissette.
“We changed some stuff that was, for me, a bit of a 'Eureka' moment,” said the second seed, who earned her first Wimbledon crown less than six months later.
“This year, we didn't manage to completely close the stuff that we wanted to change in the pre-season so this year I felt like I also needed to work on it during the tournament, and that's why maybe I felt like I played, like [a] tiny bit worse.”
The world No.2 said it has taken her longer than others to implement technical changes to her game.
“[It has] been pretty tough for me to have a smooth process,” lamented Swiatek. “I see Carlos [Alcaraz], for example, changing his serve every year. For me, it's one little thing takes [a] much longer time.”
In the pre-season, she made tweaks to her serve but during her AO matches found herself reverting back to old ways.
“I'll focus on that … for sure, there [is] some stuff that I can change to play better, and I'll try to do that in next weeks and months.”
The world No.2, who historically has competed for the full calendar year, plans to invest in her future by taking at least one break to lock in those technical changes rather than continuing to compete at a plateauing level.
“I think it's necessary … if you want to improve your game.
“I don't feel it's possible to do that in the short period of time that we have between tournaments. I think, for sure, we'll skip some [WTA] 1000 tournaments.”
Looking ahead to AO 2027, Swiatek remained upbeat about her prospects.
“Hopefully with the experience and with another year of me playing and practising, I'll be able to start next tournament, next Australian Open with some more skills or more variety or with the stuff that I wasn't able to completely work on," she said.
“Maybe I will have it next year.”