Iga Swiatek will know that today’s performance wasn’t nearly at the level she will hope to reach throughout the 2026 season.

However, over the last year or so, there has been little consistent quality from the Polish star at all really.

Her win at Wimbledon was completely stunning and deserves so much praise. The fact that she followed that up with the title in Cincinnati marked an impressive run too.

But before that, she was enduring a title drought that extended over 13 months, which emphasises just how uncharacteristically unsuccessful the six-time Grand Slam champion had been.

Speaking after this recent defeat to Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open, Iga Swiatek has already pointed out where she knows she needs to improve.

Iga Swiatek understands where her game needs work

“I know what I need to improve, and it’s kind of the same stuff that I had in my mind before the tournament as well. So there’s no, like, breakthrough lesson,” she said after the match.

She went on to add: “I’m just going to keep doing my job, and hopefully the next tournament I’ll get some stuff, you know, settled in terms of what I wanted to do with my game.”

When a reporter pressed for more specifics on her focus areas, Swiatek explained: “Well, some technical stuff, like, that have been pretty tough for me to have a smooth, you know, process in terms of changing them. I see Carlos (Alcaraz), for example, changing his serve every year (laughter). For me, one little thing takes much longer.

“There is some stuff on the serve that I want to change… but then matches come and you don’t have that much time to think about this. You don’t want to think about these kind of details when you play. So then it comes back to the old patterns.”

“So basically, yeah, I’ll focus on that. I’ll see from there because for sure there are some things that I can change to play better, and I’ll try to do that in next weeks and months.”

This isn’t something new either as she also had similar struggles heading into last season before eventually turning things around in the summer.

Iga Swiatek still waiting to complete career Grand Slam

After her unexpected triumph at Wimbledon last season, the Australian Open presented Iga Swiatek with her first real chance to complete the career Grand Slam.

While reaching the quarter-finals is no small achievement, it still fell short of her semi-final appearance from the previous year.

But with plenty of time ahead of her, there will be more chances for Swiatek to tick off this milestone.

And considering how clear she seems on what needs adjusting, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she got there sooner rather than later.