Tennis News: Iga Swiatek, Nick Kyrgios and Drake

Iga Swiatek recently re-took the WTA No. 1 ranking. She had to win the WTA Finals and hope that then-No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka didn’t make the final. Lucky for Swiatek, Sabalenka had to play her in the semifinals and Swiatek could take care of business herself instead of hoping someone else would beat the Belarusian.

Of course, as most likely know by now, Iga Swiatek swept through Sabalenka on Swiatek’s way to capturing the WTA Finals and reclaiming year-end No. 1 for the second straight year. But according to Patrick Mouratoglou’s new Instagram channel, while Swiatek still hopes for dominance, other players might be catching up to her. Players such as Sabalenka and Coco Gauff.

Patrick Mouratoglou has coached many players, so he should know what he speaks. He was Serena Wiliams’ coach from 2012 through 2022 and Williams is arguably the greatest player ever on the WTA tour. Now whether Williams’ success was due to Mouratoglou or Mouratoglou was simply riding Williams’ coattails is a subject for another day.

Iga Swiatek struggles with confidence, says one coach

According to the coach, “(Iga Swiatek) one more time ends the year as No 1 in the world, so we can talk about dominance. Of course, there is less room between her and the other players.

“I feel that Iga is someone who has a lot of doubts. But she takes doubts away with work, and work brings victories. But when she starts to be threatened, when she starts to be beaten a few times, it affects her confidence a lot.”

Interesting. So the question is whether Iga Swiatek turns that issue into a positive and works even harder or whether she will eventually be a lesser player because of what Mouratoglou sees as a confidence problem. At least the answer will play out on the court.

Nick Kyrgios and Drake fuss

In odder news, in 2014 (yes, you read that correctly – 2014) Nick Kyrgios lost a match and blamed the loss partially on the music of Drake. (Yes, you read that correctly as well.) According to the Daily Mail, Kyrgios’ exact words were, “I came out really flat, so hopefully I won’t listen to that again! It was actually Drake. Didn’t do the job for me.”

For whatever reason, Drake took recent notice of Kyrgios’ old comments and decided to DM Kyrgious and say that the Australian tennis player really hurt his feelings with his comments. And Drake also said Kyrgios was his favorite player. Lifestyles of the rich and famous can be really strange sometimes, it seems.