Andrea Petkovic had every faith that Iga Swiatek could go far at Wimbledon this year.
The past 12 months have quite possibly been the most challenging of the 23-year-old’s career so far.
She has not won a title since the 2024 French Open and she tested positive for banned substance trimetazidine towards the end of last season, resulting in a one-month ban.
But since hitting the grass, Swiatek has turned things around and she is now two sets away from becoming Wimbledon champion.
Andrea Petkovic says Iga Swiatek is more ‘patient’ with herself on grass
Iga Swiatek has no grass court titles to her name and her best result at Wimbledon was the quarter-finals.
But things have drastically changed for the Pole on the surface in 2025. She reached her first grass court final in Bad Homburg, losing to Jessica Pegula.
Swiatek backed that up by reaching the Wimbledon final, where she will face Amanda Anisimova. This is a result very few saw coming from Swiatek, but one of those people is Andrea Petkovic.
The German told BBC Sport that she sees a sense of freedom and patience in Swiatek since the grass court season began that was not present earlier in the year.
“For most of this year you could sense pressure and tension when she stepped on court. In Bad Homburg you could see that it was gone,” Petkovic said.
“She is always going to be a player who is intense on court but there was just a bit more ease and seamlessness about her. Right away, I made a hot call before Wimbledon saying she is going to win it.
“When you make a big change and hire a new coach, it takes a while to see the changes. You feel well, you feel you’re progressing and you’re expecting to see results right away. But it doesn’t happen right away.
“I think she got a bit hectic at the start of the season. Now something is different and she has a bit more patience with herself. I think she’s also forgiving herself a bit more if she makes a few unforced errors on the grass.”
Iga Swiatek says she worked on her movement to improve her grass court tennis
Prior to 2025, Swiatek won just 24 matches on grass and lost 10.
She now has 33 wins to her name with 11 defeats, and she will aim to increase her tally to 34 victories by lifting the Wimbledon title for the first time.
Swiatek’s rapid improvement on a surface that she has struggled on throughout her career has come as a shock to many.
But the five-time Grand Slam champion has been working hard with coach Wim Fissette to raise her level on the faster surfaces, and her results on grass this year have reflected that.
Explaining the specific areas of her game that she has been working on, Swiatek said: “I feel like I have developed as a player and I had time to practice a little bit more [this year]. I would say we mainly focused on my movement and how I should stop before hitting the ball.
“Also, [we worked] on fast hands because obviously it’s important here not to stop the movement, even though the ball sometimes is fast.”
