Iga Swiatek has worryingly admitted that she “couldn’t pull herself out of it” after a poor performance in Indian Wells. The two-time former champion suffered a 6-2 4-6 6-4 defeat to Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals and has now lost five straight matches to top-10 opposition for the first time in her career.

Swiatek left the court after losing the first set and was able to regroup, but still couldn’t do enough to beat Svitolina. And the world No. 2 has now admitted that she never felt comfortable on the court, even when she forced a decider.

Speaking to Canal+ after her shock loss, Swiatek said: “Honestly, it’s hard for me to sensibly describe this match, because I played really poorly from the start. I couldn’t pull myself out of it. Every time I tried to make some more intuitive decision and just play my game, the balls were totally flying away from me.

“In the second set, I started winning… well, I actually don’t know why, because I just started pushing the balls and wasn’t playing the way I wanted to. Later, when I tried to execute some of the plans I had and just play my game, I started making errors again. I don’t know, maybe it would’ve been a better decision to stick with pushing the ball over the net, but it’s hard to play like that.

“I played poorly from start to finish. I don’t want to take anything away from Elina here, but I think she felt herself that it wasn’t a fun match. Either way, congratulations to her for winning.”

Swiatek survived a wobble to beat Kayla Day in her opening match and appeared to be growing into the tournament as she stormed past Maria Sakkari and Karolina Muchova to make the quarters. But that changed against Svitolina, and she hit eight double faults during the two-hour and nine-minute contest.

“The matches with Sakkari and Muchováawere really good, but the goal in tennis is to maintain that form until the end of the tournament. It’s really hard for me to explain such a difference in form. It was just a bad day,” she added.

“I also don’t know if it was faster on that second court or not, but my timing was completely off. In the previous days, I didn’t even have to work on it much, because I just felt the court and the ball really well. In the match with Svitolina, I didn’t.”

The world No. 2 also took to Instagram to address her fans after a tough loss to Svitolina. “Yesterday’s match didn’t go the way I wanted. Not my best day, not best performance for sure. It’s tough, but these situations are part of sports life. Thank you all for the support. The hard work doesn’t stop. See you in Miami,” she wrote.

Swiatek is a former champion in Miami, completing the ‘Sunshine Double’ – winning Indian Wells and the Miami Open back-to-back – in 2022. And she’ll be hoping to regroup as she heads to Florida for the second half of the double.