Iga Swiatek dominates start to Indian Wells title defense

Iga Swiatek isn’t a fan of increasing the number of tournaments that she and her colleagues are mandated to play. She’s not a fan of making them longer, either. But she’ll make an exception for Indian Wells. On Friday, she sounded as if she wouldn’t mind moving the entire WTA tour to the desert.

“I thought about this tournament from the start of the year, that I just want to be here,” the Warsaw native told the Southern California crowd. “I always come here and find myself even more motivated then I usually am.”

She has the receipts to back those words up. While Doha is where Swiatek traditionally gets her season underway in earnest, it’s in Indian Well where she tends to achieve liftoff and separate herself from the pack. In her breakout year of 2022, she won the title as the No. 3 seed, gaining momentum with each match. In 2024, she dropped just 22 games in a six-match show of dominance. Both years she maintained that form all the way, or virtually all the way, through Roland Garros.

Swiatek’s start to 2025 has been a little different. She’s No. 2, rather than No. 1, and she hasn’t won a title. Doha didn’t bring out her best this time, and in Dubai she lost a possibly ominous straight-setter to 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva, a player who may be challenging her for bigger titles sooner than she likes. All of which only added to the urgency of getting to the peaceful confines of Indian Wells.

“I wanted to come here earlier to have a full week of practice, before actually even focusing on a tournament,” Swiatek says. “It was more for me and my game and me developing as a player. It was nice, because here you can really practice in a peaceful way and with no other distractions.”

She has liked the slow courts here in the past, and said she liked the new surface that has been laid down this year.

“I don’t feel much difference,” she said after practicing on the courts. “I don't really mind…I try not to overthink it and just go out and play.”

Swiatek didn’t seem to mind anything about the courts or the conditions during her opening match against Caroline Garcia on Friday. At least it appeared that way in the short time she was out there. Swiatek won 6-2, 6-0 in 61 minutes. She rushed Garcia, who refused to back off the baseline, and changed directions with confidence. Her return was ultra-sharp: Iga won 75 percent of points on Garcia’s second serve, and an even more impressive 58 percent of the points on her first serve. All those peaceful practice sessions seemed to have paid off.

“I kept my focus until the end,” Swiatek said. “The conditions weren’t easy, it was pretty windy. [I was] just adjusting, and wanted my feet to be quick, and used my intuition to do that well. I just kept it easy.”

If Swiatek wanted a match that would smooth her way into the tournament, and into the next part of the season, she got one on Friday. Two days from now, she may get a tougher test from Dayana Yastremska, who blew past Ons Jabeur in her opener, and who can take the racquet out of any player’s hand.

But Swiatek has waited too long to get to Indian Wells to leave without a fight.

“I just hope I’m here until the end,” she says.