Iga Świątek is back in action with the Sunshine Swing and is competing as the second seed at the BNP Paribas Open, the WTA 1000 tournament being played from March 4–15 at Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Southern California. The Polish sensation has recently shared her thoughts and plans for facing Maria Sakkari, whom she lost to in the Qatar Open quarterfinals.
Iga Świątek Eyes Revenge Against Maria Sakkari at Indian Wells
Świątek impressively commenced her 2026 season at the Australian Open, where she defeated players such as Anna Kalinskaya, Marie Bouzková, and others but fell short against the eventual champion, Elena Rybakina, in the quarterfinals.
In her Middle East swing tournament, the Qatar Open, she defeated Janice Tjen in the round of 32, Daria Kasatkina in the round of 16, and then lost the next match to the former World No. 3, Sakkari, with a final score of 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. The World No. 2 won the first set but failed to get past the Greek talent in the second and third sets.
During her Indian Wells Open campaign, Świątek overcame Kayla Day in the round of 64 with a final score of 6-0, 7-6(2). During her post-match press conference, she revealed the reasons why she lost the match against Sakkari, the winner of two WTA singles titles.
The Warsaw, Poland, native said, “I think in Doha it was, for me, quite obvious why I lost, and immediately when I went off the court, I knew what to improve. Like technical-wise, I didn’t really prepare for some of the shots as I should.”
She further explained that she returned to her training after tasting the heavy defeat to identify and address the limitations in her form and the mindset she needed to adopt when playing against the Greek star.
Świątek said, “When we got back home, I really practiced hard. Also, I played many, like, longer rallies to not lose patience in the middle of it and really be able to grind, because against Maria, you need to be ready for a physical match. Yeah, like, I want to really use these practices for the match and change that and be better at that, so we’ll see how it’s going to go.”
Świątek won her two Indian Wells Open titles after defeating Sakkari in the final in straight sets during the 2022 and 2024 seasons, and their head-to-head currently stands at 4-4.
