Iga Swiatek’s off-season update landed on Wednesday morning: a bunch of photographs and a short video from the Maldives. Among them, a shot of the former World No. 1 in a black-and-white striped bikini turned heads.
The carousel runs through snorkeling, dolphins watched from a boat, local food, sunsets in good company, and one clip in which her racket is used to smooth the thatched roof of her villa instead of hitting a ball.
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“Read books on the beach,” read Iga Swiatek’s caption.
The vacation follows a season that finished on an undesired note. The left thigh injury that bothered her in Wuhan led to an abrupt end to her season. She withdrew from Ningbo in October which shattered her WTA Finals dream, missing the year-end showpiece event for the first time since 2020.
Iga Swiatek closed 2026 with a single title, the Canadian Open in Toronto, where she toppled World No. 1 Elena Rybakina 6-2, 6-3 in a lopsided final. She is ninth in the WTA rankings published on November 2 with 4,188 points.
Iga Swiatek’s coach clarifies Pole’s decision to skip the United Cup for the first time in five years
Three days before the vacation post went up, Iga Swiatek’s coach Francisco Roig explained the rationale behind the 25-year-old’s decision to opt out of the United Cup.
Poland won the coveted title beating Switzerland 2-1 in the final, and will turn up to defend its crown in Perth and Sydney from January 1 without its talismanic star. Maja Chwalinska and Hubert Hurkacz are the headline names in the Polish entry.
Roig’s first point was about what the event has meant to her, which matters in a country where her commitment to the national team is followed closely.
“I know how much her performances in this tournament have meant to her in recent years. Representing Poland has always been and continues to be very important to her,” Roig said in an interview with Przegląd Sportowy Onet.
The Spaniard outlined that the second was the scheduling case, and it is not really an argument about the United Cup at all. The target is the Australian Open, the only Grand Slam missing from Iga Swiatek’s record.
“Together with Iga, we decided to start the new season with a tournament in Brisbane. This decision was guided primarily by the training plan and the competition calendar, especially in the context of the Australian Open,” he added.
Brisbane is a WTA 500 tournament running from January 3 to 10, which overlaps the second half of the United Cup. The swap is straightforward on paper: Iga Swiatek gives up the 150 points she earned in Perth last January and can replace them with as many as 500 in Queensland.
Punto de Break also reported a planned exhibition appearance in Seoul in late December, with Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Naomi Osaka and Jasmine Paolini on the bill, before she touches down Down Under.
Edited by Pritha Ghosh
