The world number two lost in Doha to Jelena Ostapenko, who continues to dominate Swiatek in their one-sided head-to-head.

Although the Middle Eastern swing did not go as hoped for Swiatek, she fared better than her nearest rivals Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff.

Swiatek will be looking to make improvements ahead of Indian Wells, where she is the defending champion.

Iga Swiatek explains why she has an ‘advantage’ at Indian Wells

Last year saw Swiatek dominate en route to winning her second Indian Wells title, with the Pole not dropping a single set before beating Maria Sakkari in a comfortable final victory.

Ahead of her bid to make history as the first woman to win three singles titles at Indian Wells, Swiatek spoke to press about why she thinks the conditions give her an advantage over some of her WTA rivals.

“Honestly, I don’t know, it’s hard to say,” responded Swiatek. “Probably the surface is pretty slow, the ball is bouncing high. It gives me a little bit of an advantage. But on the other hand the conditions are tricky still with the really dry air.

“So I wouldn’t say it’s so easy to play here, because it’s not. Every match can be super tough. I just, I don’t know, I’m trying to be solid on every tournament, so if you are consistent, you know you’re going to get more chances to win titles at the end. But it’s not like, you know, it’s so easy, you know, so…”

Swiatek is the only member of the current top five WTA players to have won the Indian Wells title, with a 90% win percentage at the tournament.

This is significantly higher than the next best player in Coco Gauff, who has a 69% win percentage at Indian Wells.

While not currently a top five player, world number seven Elena Rybakina has a much closer win percentage with 82% and was actually the last player to beat Swiatek at Indian Wells before going onto win the title in 2023.

Later on in her press conference, Swiatek revealed that she has nearly been at Indian Wells for a week and has enjoyed her preparations.

“We got here on Friday, and, you know, I wanted to come here earlier to have, like, a full week of, you know, practice, before actually, you know, even focusing on a tournament,” explained Swiatek. “It was more for me and my game and me developing as a player.

“It was nice, because here you can really practice in a peaceful way and with no other distractions. I really enjoyed this.”

Iga Swiatek gives her verdict on the new surface at Indian Wells

With Swiatek explaining her love for the conditions in the Californian desert, she was asked about the big change Indian Wells have made to the courts this year.

After 25 years of using Plexipave, Indian Wells have followed the US Open by implementing Laykold for 2025.

This appears to have split opinion, with Aryna Sabalenka loving the new courts after playing on them for the first time.

While Carlos Alcaraz was unsure of Indian Wells’ decision ahead of his title defence in the men’s singles event.

With it being a hot topic of conversation at the moment, Swiatek found herself in the middle and claimed that the courts do not feel too dissimilar.

“Honestly, I don’t feel much difference,” admitted Swiatek. “We come here after a year anyway, after a year of playing on different surfaces. Everybody says it’s a bit different, but I don’t know if — it’s actually in the back of our heads because everybody is talking about it.

“But honestly, I don’t really mind. We need to get used to the conditions anyway every week, so we’re kind of used to it. I try not to overthink it and just go out and play.”

Swiatek will put her theory about the Indian Wells courts to the test when she plays her first match against former world number four Caroline Garcia.