Two-time champion Iga Świątek suffered an unfortunate exit at the WTA 1000 tournament at Indian Wells on Thursday, March 12, against the in-form Elina Svitolina. Despite having a slight edge over the Ukrainian, the Pole struggled during the match and ultimately ended her hopes of a third title at the venue.
Notably, right before the match point, the Polish champion had an outburst on court, showing a rare side of herself.
Iga Świątek’s Indian Wells Outburst Before Losing to Elina Svitolina
Świątek is known for her calm, composed demeanor during matches, showing little emotion after major wins or shocking losses. However, that changed on Thursday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden as she suffered a heartbreaking exit from the WTA 1000 tournament at the hands of Svitolina.
The Ukrainian dictated the match from the very first point, breaking Świątek three times in the first five games to take a formidable 5-1 lead. She then closed out the set 6-2 before the Pole came back to her senses, breaking Svitolina once to take a 4-1 lead. The Ukrainian fought back, breaking Świątek to tie the score at 4-4, before the two-time champion took the set 6-4 in a close encounter.
The decider kicked off equally tense, with both players holding their serves until the ninth game, when Svitolina broke Świątek to win the match 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. However, after getting broken in the ninth game, the Polish champion couldn’t control her frustration as she had an emotional outburst on her bench.
In anger, Świątek smashed her towel on the court and fell back to her chair before shouting at her team. She looked stunned and confused, left without answers by the Ukrainian Champion before uttering a few words to her team again.
Looking at the match statistics, Świątek’s frustration is understandable. She landed equally as many of her first serves as Svitolina, but won only 62% of those points, compared to Svitolina’s 73%. Both players had the same number of second serves and won an equal number of points on them (15 out of 34), but efficiency is where she lost the match.
Svitolina committed just five double faults compared to Świątek’s eight, whereas the Ukrainian delivered five bullet-like aces compared to the Pole’s three.
Świątek’s Concerning Form in the 2026 Season
In the three tournaments that she has participated in this year, the six-time Grand Slam Champion has suffered a quarterfinal exit in all three. She first suffered a straight-set loss to the eventual champion Elena Rybakina in Melbourne, a three-set loss to Maria Sakkari in Doha, and now, another three-set loss to Svitolina in Indian Wells.
One thing to note here is that in all three scenarios, she lost against a lower-ranked player than herself. What’s even more concerning is the fact that since the 2025 US Open, Świątek has won just one match against a top-10 player, which was against Madison Keys during the 2025 WTA Finals group stage, holding a 1-6 record against the top-ranked players.
Now that Świątek lost in the quarterfinals this year, she is set to lose her ranking points as she did last year, when she reached the semifinals.
Interestingly, following her second major win in Melbourne in January and reaching the semifinals, Rybakina is set to gain crucial ranking points, which will push her above the Pole in the WTA rankings, as she suffered a Round of 16 exit last year against the eventual champion Mirra Andreeva.
If the Pole wants to return to her championship form and defend her Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in three months, she must take immediate action and focus on improving her gameplay.
