Defending French Open champion Iga Swiatek reacts to commencement of 2023 clay season

Iga Swiatek has expressed her emotions about the arrival of the 2023 clay season. The World No. 1 will soon be marking her competitive return to the red dirt after her semifinal stint at Indian Wells.

Roland Garros' official social media page recently tweeted, celebrating the commencement of the clay court tournaments.

“CLAY SEASON HERE WE GOOOO,” the tweet read.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek responded by retweeting the post and expressed her delight with a happy heart emoji.

The 21-year-old has had considerable success on hard courts, but clay has unquestionably been her favorite surface, having accumulated a 85.27% win rate. The Pole has won five of her 12 titles so far on red dirt.

Starting with the 2020 French Open as her first career title, Iga Swiatek has boosted her clay court prowess with two back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Rome in 2021 and 2022, as well as a WTA 500 title in Stuttgart. Her most recent clay title was the 2022 French Open.

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"It depends on my process of recovering" – Iga Swiatek on competitive return after injury declaration

Iga Swiatek is expected to commence her clay court campaign with title defense at the Stuttgart Open

Iga Swiatek witnessed a historic season in 2022. The Pole scored the longest WTA win streak of the century by winning as many as 37 consecutive matches and lifting six titles during the period. The World No. 1’s 2023 season, however, hasn’t measured up to her last year’s feat.

Of the three title defenses so far, Iga Swiatek has been successful in one – the Qatar Open, which was a WTA 1000 event in 2022 but a WTA 500 event in 2023. The 21-year-old fell short of her defense at the WTA 1000 Indian Wells, with a semifinal loss to eventual champion Elena Rybakina. Furthermore, she also failed to defend her WTA 1000 Miami Open title after being forced to pull out of the event due to a rib injury.

During her withdrawal announcement, Swiatek stated that she and her team will be carefully monitoring her recovery, after which she will be able to set a return date.

“I will keep you updated about where I play next, because it depends on my process of recovering and the recommendation of my medical team. I have the best team behind me, we only need some time to deal with the injury,” the World No. 1 had said.

While the World No. 1 is yet to make an official statement regarding her comeback, she recently updated fans about her return to training with a picture on social media.

If all goes well for the 21-year-old, who has three titles to defend on clay (Italian Open, Stuttgart and Roland Garros), fans can expect her to start her campaign with a title defense at the WTA 500 Stuttgart Open between April 17-23.