A tense week off the court has followed Iga Swiatek after her early exit in Doha, but this time the headlines aren’t just about forehands and rankings. In the 2026 season, Swiatek has found herself at the center of a debate over her close working relationship with longtime sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz. Concerns voiced by several critics, including her former coach and a journalist, prompted a strong response from the Polish star’s father, Tomasz Swiatek.

Her father, who’s also a former Olympic rower, regularly travels with her and Abramowicz to tournaments… didn’t take the comments lightly. He slammed the pair in a comment. “What have you both achieved? Almost nothing; mind your own business. You don’t know shit, you sleep on your feet,” he wrote. But what exactly had Artur Sostaczko and journalist Lechem Sidorem said?

Well, there were a few moments from Iga Swiatek’s recent Qatar Open campaign that sparked this controversy once again. During the QF match against Maria Sakkari, as the match was slowly slipping away from the hands of the Pole, cameras repeatedly focused on Swiatek’s box, where her longtime sports psychologist, Daria Abramowicz, was seen losing her cool time and again. Her animated gestures, shouting, and visible frustration from the stands triggered reactions from the fans online.

Then, Swiatek’s recent withdrawal from the Dubai Tennis Championships after her poor performance in Doha literally added fuel to the fire. The controversy intensified after a discussion on the Trzeci Serwis channel featuring Swiatek’s former youth coach Artur Sostaczko and journalist Lechem Sidorem. Sostaczko said: “I don’t know of any other case where a player spends day and night with a psychologist… joint vacations, matches, movies. But if it suits Iga, I won’t discourage her.”

Sidor added criticism about recent matches: “At the Australian Open and in Doha, it wasn’t clear that Daria Abramowicz was helping in any way… The world is starting to look at this arrangement differently.” They even suggested time apart during training periods to reset dynamics.

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But let me tell you that they aren’t the only ones to raise eyebrows at this partnership. In 2024, a prominent mental trainer named Jakub B. Baczek expressed his concerns about their long-standing working relationships. He claimed that this lengthy collaboration could potentially become a “kind of trap”. According to Baczek, this was a pretty unusual situation.

Last year, even Polish sports psychologist Dariusz Nowicki stated that “certain boundaries” between therapist and player had been crossed and labelled the partnership “disturbed.”

Abramowicz has worked with Swiatek since 2019, when the Pole was still a teenager. Since then, the collaboration has coincided with six Grand Slam titles, a Surface Slam across hard and grass majors, and long spells at world No. 1 under multiple coaches – Piotr Sierzputowski, Tomasz Wiktorowski, and Wim Fissette (current coach). Despite coaching changes, Abramowicz has remained constant – which is precisely why critics continue to examine the relationship whenever results dip.

For now, however, the loudest response has come from inside Iga Swiatek’s camp itself. And if Tomasz Swiatek’s blunt message is any indication, the team has no plans to change its formula as the season heads toward Indian Wells. But let me tell you, this isn’t the first time that we have seen her father stepping up to defend her daughter and her decisions.

Iga Swiatek’s father defended her when she failed to win a gold medal for her nation at the Paris Olympics

Olympic pressure can break even champions, but for Iga Swiatek, the moment became a family story as much as a sport. Long before Iga dominated tennis courts, sporting ambition already ran deep in the family. Her father, Tomasz Swiatek, represented Poland internationally in rowing and competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in the men’s quadruple sculls, finishing seventh overall after winning the B final.

His greatest triumph came a year earlier – gold at the 1987 Summer Universiade, and years later, he received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for promoting Poland through sport. He never won an Olympic medal himself. His daughter eventually did.

At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Swiatek fell short of the gold medal after a semifinal loss, and criticism followed immediately. Analysts questioned tactics, mentality, and expectations. Her father stepped in. “An Olympic medal is something special. Anyone who thinks it’s easy should try it themselves. It’s easy to judge from an armchair, but it looks different from the inside.”

Iga Swiatek finished her Paris Olympics campaign with a bronze medal. The Olympics carried personal meaning. Her father’s unfinished Olympic story had shaped her upbringing. In an emotional post-Games interview, Swiatek said, “Because of him, I’m playing tennis. In tough moments, my dad was there to keep me going and show me it was still worth it.” She also revealed how the Games were central to her childhood mindset: “Me and my sister were raised believing the Olympics are the most important tournament.”

Even after becoming a multiple Grand Slam champion, the podium moment stood apart – not just another trophy, but a shared dream fulfilled across generations.

But not only this time; even when there were a few question marks raised on Iga Swiatek’s success on non-clay courts previously, her father labeled those as “false assumptions.” He chose not to argue publicly but stood firmly behind his daughter. And this comment supporting Swiatek-Abramowicz’s partnership is just another such example of how supportive he has been of his daughter’s tennis journey. Share your thoughts on Tomasz Swiatek’s reaction to the controversy.