‘This is the worst nightmare a top tennis player can have’: Iga Swiatek struggles after Miami Open defeat
In the gloomy surrounds of a makeshift mixed media zone situated inside a dark corridor under the Hard Rock Stadium, Iga Swiatek needed a brief moment to let some of her emotions go before another wave of questions struck her.An hour earlier, Swiatek had experienced one of her most difficult defeats in years, losing in the second round at the Miami Open against her compatriot Magda Linette in a messy three-set affair.Between the Polish and English sections of her post-match media duties, Swiatek retreated to a corner of the room and, with her back to her audience, she wiped tears from her eyes.Swiatek emerged a minute later speaking with admirable candidness about her struggles and how difficult things had become for her on court.Tennis, the Pole said, felt complicated in her head these days even though it is supposed to be simple.
Although she was happy in general life, tennis has only brought her confusion in recent months, she was struggling to handle the pressure and weight on her shoulders that accompanies her achievements.“This is like the worst nightmare a top tennis player can have, dropping in matches in terms of the level,” she said.“So I need to live through this, go forward, learn, and figure it out.”It came as no surprise on Sunday that, for Swiatek, the next step forward was for her to part ways with her coach, Wim Fissette.Having achieved so much in her sport at such a young age, Swiatek now stands at a crossroads in her career as the world No 3 tries to find a way to fully re-establish her position at the summit of her sport.
In the 19 months since she last held the No 1 ranking, her great rival Aryna Sabalenka has taken over as the leading figure of the WTA, but Swiatek remains the greatest player of their generation,A six-time grand slam title winner, with four at Roland Garros alone, she is already an all-time great at the age of 24,Her success has been driven by the balance between her destructive weapons off both groundstrokes, her heavy topspin, and supreme athleticism,But her greatest asset has always been her formidable mental toughness,Her discipline, intensity and the methodical manner with which she has navigated her career are all remarkable traits.
However, the mental qualities that have driven her success are what have eaten her alive in recent months,Swiatek is also prone to chronic overthinking, worrying and second-guessing every decision she makes,Her recent difficulties began in the autumn of 2024 after her positive test for the banned substance trimetazidine and she was suspended for a month in December that year,But Swiatek proved categorically through laboratory testing that the permitted sleep medication she had taken, melatonin, was contaminated, allowing her to quickly return to the tour,There were other consequences.
Swiatek’s inactivity in the final months of 2024 meant she could not realistically fight with Sabalenka to regain her No 1 ranking, something she struggled to move past for some time,Swiatek found relief under the most unlikely circumstances, her low expectations during the grass‑court season allowing her to play with total freedom and pull off one of her greatest achievements by winning Wimbledon,However, the anxiety surrounding her game soon returned in full force,Swiatek is still performing more consistently than all but a few players but her overwhelming stress in big matches has been visible for some time,Swiatek’s time with Fissette started in crisis with the doping case, and beyond the magical summer of 2025 things have been tough.
Fissette began their partnership with good ideas for transforming Swiatek into a more well‑rounded and balanced player, but she has just not been in the right frame of mind to accept and fully implement those changes.With Swiatek struggling so much mentally, there has been ample focus on her work with her longtime sports psychologist, Daria Abramowicz, whose partnership laid the foundations for Swiatek’s spectacular achievements.Swiatek has repeatedly rebutted some of the abhorrent messages she and her team receive.As Poland’s most successful global athlete, the scrutiny can be unbearable.However, regardless of the personnel around her, Swiatek can often seem over-reliant on them.
As she considers her next direction, perhaps the most important thing she can do is take full ownership of her career and the decision‑making that underpins it, and for the people around her to facilitate that,
Divide between Silicon Valley and ordinary people grows ever larger
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery. This week in tech, we discuss a moment of divergence between Silicon Valley and everyday people; deep cuts at Meta to maximize spending on AI; writers caught using AI; and the frightening, fiery crashes of the Tesla Cybertruck.Nvidia hosted a conference last week where it emphasized AI agents – semi-autonomous chatbots that can perform digital tasks for you – as the next frontier in tech. The company announced a toolkit for agents, including NemoClaw, an AI agent software suite for businesses
Amount of AI-generated child sexual abuse material found online surged in 2025
The amount of AI-generated child sexual abuse material found online rose by 14% last year, with the majority of videos showing the most extreme type of content, according to a safety watchdog.The Internet Watch Foundation said it identified 8,029 AI-made images and videos of realistic child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in 2025. It added that there had been a more than 260-fold increase in videos.The IWF said 65% of the 3,443 videos were classified as category A, the term for the most severe material under UK law. The corresponding figure for non-AI videos was 43%, said the watchdog, showing that the technology was being used to create more violent content
MPs urge UK government to halt contract giving Palantir FCA data access
MPs have urged the government to halt its latest contract with Palantir after the Guardian revealed that the US spy-tech company is to gain access to a trove of highly sensitive UK financial regulation data.The Financial Conduct Authority, the watchdog for thousands of financial bodies from banks to hedge funds, has hired Palantir to apply its AI systems to two years’ worth of internal intelligence data to help it tackle financial crime.But the Liberal Democrats on Monday called for a government investigation into the contract, which the party said could be “a huge error of judgment”, while the Green party said it should be blocked over Palantir’s links to Donald Trump.Questioned on whether the UK was becoming “dangerously overreliant” on US tech companies including Palantir, Keir Starmer told parliament he would prefer to have more domestic capability but added: “I don’t think we’re overreliant.”Palantir was founded by the Trump-backing billionaire Peter Thiel and it supports the US and Israeli militaries and the ICE immigration crackdown
AI boom risks widening wealth divide, says BlackRock’s Larry Fink
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Leonid Radvinsky, owner of OnlyFans, dies aged 43
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‘Kids say they take a quick look at TikTok’: a new kind of distracted driving is on the rise
As watching videos, using touchscreens, and even livestreaming behind the wheel become more common, experts warn of increased risk of crashes Jackie was on her way to a doctor’s appointment last fall when she realized her Uber driver’s eyes were not fully on the road. “He had a video playing on his phone and was intermittently looking at it,” she said. Jackie, who is 32 and lives in New Jersey, could not tell exactly what the driver was watching, but she remembers seeing shots of people talking – she guessed it was a video podcast. “I was definitely feeling a lot of dread and distress.”As they continued on their 40-minute drive down the New Jersey Turnpike – a hectic highway that is not easy driving – Jackie considered saying something
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