Aryna Sabalenka did the unthinkable on Thursday, ended Iga Swiatek’s 26-match French Open winning streak, and secured her first-ever final appearance at Roland Garros. In a thrilling semifinal that swung like a pendulum, the world No. 1 came out on top 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-0. And yes, you read that right, Swiatek got bageled at the French Open. With the win, Sabalenka stopped Swiatek from etching her name in the history books as the first woman to claim four consecutive French Open titles since the sport turned professional in 1968. For the 23-year-old Pole, losing at Roland Garros is unfamiliar territory. So what’s next?

Statistically, Swiatek entered the match with plenty of reasons to feel confident. She had a 5-1 head-to-head record over Sabalenka on clay and had reigned supreme in Paris. Her only loss before Thursday had been against Maria Sakkari in the 2021 quarterfinals. But this was also the first season in years that she came into the French Open without a clay-court title to her name.

Throughout the semifinal, Iga Swiatek showed flashes of brilliance with 29 winners. But those moments were undermined by 35 unforced errors, many at critical points. The start of the third set proved to be the tipping point. At 15-all on Sabalenka’s serve in the first game, Swiatek missed a routine shot. That game went to the Belarusian, and the next, despite Swiatek being up 30-15, slipped away too. From there, Sabalenka took over completely, dismantling the Pole’s rhythm and reeling off six games in a row to hand the world No. 5 a rare bagel.

Reflecting on the result, Swiatek told the media, “It wasn’t a bad tournament, but obviously, yeah, as you said, not the result I wanted.” Addressing the final-set collapse, she said, “I think I lost my intensity a bit, and she just played, you know, like pretty strong as in first set, but I didn’t react to that well and just couldn’t push back, you know.”

So where does Iga Swiatek go from here? She’s already planning a pivot to grass, a surface she’s admitted is tougher to adjust to. In her post-match presser, she said, “I’m going to have few days off, but the coaches will plan that. Hopefully we’re going to have some decent kind of little preseason on grass, because it’s always been pretty hard to have that, especially when I want to be a little bit home. But I don’t feel like I need to be home right now, so maybe I’ll go somewhere in Europe, practice.”

Seven years into her Grand Slam career, Wimbledon remains Iga Swiatek’s biggest puzzle. Despite dominating on clay and making deep runs on hard courts, the grass of Wimbledon has stubbornly resisted becoming part of her kingdom. Her best showing at the All England Club came in 2023, when she finally broke into the quarterfinals. But her run ended there, as she lost a gripping three-set battle to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, falling just short of the final four. A year later, the grass-court woes returned. In 2024, Swiatek was stunned in the third round by Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, 6-2, 1-6, 2-6, adding another early exit to her Wimbledon résumé.

With this loss, Iga Swiatek will slide further down the rankings.

Iga Swiatek bound to fall further in rankings after French Open heartbreak

Iga Swiatek will drop 1,200 points when the next WTA rankings are released and is expected to slip to No. 7 in the world. But, the Pole was quick to shut down any suggestion that she needed to rethink her approach to the game or focus on her ranking.

Speaking to reporters in her post-match press conference, the 23-year-old revealed that she’d already adjusted her mindset following her early exit in Rome to Danielle Collins. The defending champion of Rome was ousts in the second round by the American. So ranking points are not on her radar coming into Paris.

“I think I already changed my mindset before this tournament,” she said. “Like losing early in Rome gave me some time and perspective, so I wasn’t really thinking about points here on this tournament. Obviously looking at the math, I lost many points right now, but I know that it doesn’t really matter. Like, any of us can win these tournaments. We kind of start every tournament from the beginning. So I’m just going to try to do my job and focus on, like, just getting progress and learning new stuff on grass right now.”

Iga Swiatek may be dropping in the rankings, but her focus is firmly on growth and adapting to new challenges. Can she finally crack the code on grass and turn the tide at Wimbledon? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!