McEnroe: Steel Solution to Spark Swiatek on Roland Garros Run
By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle/ROLEX
A steel solution to Iga Swiatek’s clay struggles resides in Roland Garros.
Former world No. 1 Swiatek arrives in Paris as arguably the most enigmatic and experienced contender in the field.
Still, four-time Roland Garros champion Swiatek has not won a clay-court championship since she destroyed Jasmine Paolini in the 2024 French Open final. Swiatek, who fell to Elina Svitolina in the Rome semifinals, sports a 6-3 clay-court record this season, and has sometimes hit herself into oblivion.
So how can Iga regain the imposing dirt form she’s displayed winning 26 of her last 27 Roland Garros matches?
Hall of Famer and TNT analyst John McEnroe says Swiatek need only look at the steel statue of her tennis hero, Rafa Nadal, on the Roland Garros grounds for the answer.
McEnroe said Swiatek should emulate Nadal’s devotion to defense to ignite her offense.
MORE: TNT ROLAND GARROS TV SCHEDULE
In a Zoom call with the media today to promote TNT’s Roland Garros TV coverage starting on Sunday, May 24th at 5 a.m. Eastern time on TNT, McEnroe said Swiatek has become so committed to playing first-strike offense, she’s lost some of her defensive prowess extending points on dirt.
The results, McEnroe suggests, have been more unforced errors and more clay-court defeats for the woman, who swept Madrid, Rome and Paris championships two years ago.
“For her, in her mind, it appears if she’s playing defense like they’ve got her in a way mentally,” John McEnroe told the media on TNT’s Zoom call. “She’s got to understand that at times that’s actually [not bad to play defense].
“Iga idolizes Rafa. Well Rafa played equally well offensively and defensively.”
The Mac Zone — TNT Sports’ signature fan-first tennis experience airing daily during Roland Garro’s first six days across Bleacher Report’s YouTube channel, truTV and HBO Max — with the McEnroe brothers covering both the days events and pop culture crossovers to the tournament.
The third-ranked Swiatek jettisoned coach Wim Fissette after her Miami Open opening-round loss and hired Rafa Nadal’s ex-coach Francisco Roig, whose partnership with Emma Raducanu ended earlier this year, as her new coach.
King of Clay Nadal, who attended some of Swiatek’s training sessions at the Rafa Nadal Academy on Mallorca last month, should serve as Swiatek’s stylistic role model, John McEnroe said.
“When she’s on, she’s unbelievable offensively,” John McEnroe said. “But for someone as great as she is on clay, she doesn’t play defense as well as you might expect.”
Patrick McEnroe, who will co-host the MacZone on TNT alongside his brother, said Swiatek can still clean up on clay when she plays with the lead.
The Wimbledon winner has grown too predictable trying to strong-arm opponents and can self-sabotage by hitting her way into problems, says Patrick McEnroe.
“The first couple of years I watched her on clay, I was thinking: ‘Man, she’s gonna dominant on this surface for a long time,’ “ Patrick McEnroe said. “As a front-runner, she can still dominate.
“To me, what’s hurt her a lot, as a match player is she kind of only plays like one style. [She plays] like super aggressive and I compare her a little bit to Agassi. When Agassi learned how to control the tempo a little better—he obviously got fitter, he got more experienced—he didn’t always try to just hit through you.
“Agassi was the greatest ball striker I ever saw off both wings until this new modern era of players.”
In contrast, Swiatek hasn’t shown the control to pull back a bit when the ball is flying, create some shorter angles and show patient point construction.
“I think Iga, if it’s not working, she’ll just hit her way into trouble,” Patrick McEnroe said. “Obviously, she’s had some off-court issues with her team and she looks, at times, like she’d rather be anywhere else than on the tennis court. That’s tough to deal with when you’re someone of her stature with multiple majors in her back pocket.
“She’s trying to become an all-timer, which I think physically she has the possibility of doing. We’ve seen signs this clay-court season she’s starting to get it back, but I feel she doesn’t change her tempo enough like mid-match sometimes.”
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