Iga Swiatek has a change of heart about playing at the Billie Jean King Cup

Iga Swiatek is not against representing her home country of Poland. Far from it. She did so at the Olympics this year. She has done so in the past at the Billie Jean King Cup. Her issue with playing in the BJK Cup, though, has been how close the start of the tournament was to the end of the WTA Finals.

Swiatek has been ranked at the top of the WTA for most of two years. She could safely assume she would make deep runs at the WTA's year-end event. This meant she would have little time to not only rest between tournaments but working out the logisitcs of how to get from one event in time for another was difficult.

The Pole has not played in the BJK Cup since playing in qualifiers early in 2022. She did not play in qualifiers in 2023, even though there was an opening in her schedule. 2024 was different as Swiatek did help Poland qualify for the finals, but the expectation was that she would once again not participate.

Iga Swiatek chooses to play in the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup finals

Not so fast, however. The Pole has had a change of heart and decided to participate for Poland this year. This might partly be due to Swiatek being a bit more rested overall - she skipped a couple of tournaments in October - but there is also a few days break between the WTA Finals and the BJK Cup.

The tour's year-end finals will be held from November 2 through 9 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Billie Jean King Cup takes place from November 13 through 20 in Malaga, Spain. This means Swiatek will have a couple of days rest.

There is also a potentially more important aspect for the player. She recently switched coaches and hired Wim Fissette. Playing both tournaments in November will help the player-coach relationship even further and help prepare the Pole for the beginning of the 2025 season. One of her goals is to win other Grand Slams besides the French Open (four times) and the US Open (once).

The best she has done at the Australian Open is in the semifinals in 2022, but she hasn't made it past the fourth round in any other year. While she wants to win the WTA Finals and help Poland win the Billie Jean King Cup, playing both has a secondary value as well. Swiatek and Fissette will be more in tune to try to get Swiatek's first title in Melbourne.

More tennis news and analysis: