Iga Swiatek on 'stupid decisions' and 'terrible' tennis as she reacts to shock French Open exit after defeat to Marta Kostyuk
By Leon Imber
Published 31/05/2026 at 16:57 GMT+1
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Four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek was highly critical of much of her play, which led to her surprise exit against Marta Kostyuk in the fourth round at Roland-Garros.
Experts react to 'total collapse' from Swiatek in shock loss to Kostyuk - 'I didn't see any fight'
Video credit: TNT Sports
Swiatek confessed to having "lost control of the match", evident in the 7-5 6-1 scoreline, as her frustrations showed in the second set by attempting winners which resulted in costly unforced errors.
Defeat consigned the 'Queen of Clay' to another exit before the final at Roland-Garros - this time coming two rounds earlier than her semi-final defeat to Aryna Sabalenka last year.
And the Polish world No. 3 did not hold back in her assessment of her performance.
"I lost control of the match and there was no way for me to come back because I felt worse and worse, you know," Swiatek said in her press conference.
"So this is not, like, positive, and this is different than losing to Elina [Svitolina] in Rome or to [Mirra] Andreeva, I guess, in Stuttgart.
"So, yeah, it's not great. I know that I lost because I was tense and my body couldn't really do what my body... the proper things, you know, but it's not the first time, as well.
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Watch dramatic moment Kostyuk stuns Swiatek - 'We knew an upset could be on the cards'
Video credit: TNT Sports
"I just need to work on it. Honestly, like, for me, maybe the toughest loss is when you had the match in your hands, but I don't know, you made stupid decisions and you let it go and your opponent suddenly comes back.
"It's also bad when your tennis is just terrible and you know that you were worse than the players that you play with."
But Swiatek thought Kostyuk did well to capitalise on the chance she was presented with.
"I lost today because Marta used the opportunity and I was super tense," Swiatek said. "I feel like I can work on that, at least, and there is a reason and there is maybe a solution. Maybe it's not going to take one week or one month.
"Maybe it's going to take even a season or something, but I need to believe that I can work through this and not be thrown off so quickly."
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Swiatek has won a single major title since lifting the Suzanne-Lenglen cup in Paris two years ago - having claimed her maiden Wimbledon crown last year.
She spoke about feelings of "stress" creeping back into her game on Sunday.
"Well, I mean, we're not on therapy session," Swiatek smiled. "So I'm going to keep it simple, but obviously there could be many reasons.
"I'd rather, like, work on it on my own. It is harder, a bit, to handle stress for me in the last year, especially [because] I feel like the peak was in US this year.
"So I feel like today I felt off, you know, and I did mistakes that I didn't want to do and I wanted to play safe, but the ball flew everywhere.
"Suddenly, these feelings came back, and I tried to work on it with my dialogue inside, but it was tough today. Yeah, so it all kind of went drastically down and I played worse and worse."
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Highlights: Stunning upset as Kostyuk downs four-time champion Swiatek
Video credit: TNT Sports
Attentions for Swiatek will now turn to the grass season. Her Wimbledon title last year was a relative surprise given the surface was, historically, not her strongest.
And the Pole conceded that it is "hard to say" how she will perform this year.
"I don't know," she said. "I haven't thought about grass at all. Hard to say.
"Yeah, it was a great year last year but, also, my previous results were not good, you know. I mean, they were good but depending, you know, how you look at it.
"So I'm going to probably take it easy and try to be patient and be humble. Like, I don't know how it's going to be. I'm not a wizard."
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