On the day last month that Iga Swiatek resoundingly announced to the world that she was, most definitively, back at her best — ready once again to dominate her opponents and, indeed, all of women's tennis — she already was looking ahead.
“After a few days of celebrating,” Swiatek said, just hours into her status as a Wimbledon champion by virtue of a 6-0, 6-0 victory in the final there, “I'm going to need to get back on hard courts and grind and grind and grind.”
The work is paying off.
As she now goes to the U.S. Open, which starts in New York on Sunday, it's only fair to look at Swiatek the way the world did not all that long ago: as a player with the talent and mindset to succeed on all surfaces, in all conditions, against all players.
The 24-year-old from Poland who already owns six major titles — and needs only an Australian Open trophy to complete a career Grand Slam — has returned to her elite status, not to mention returned to No. 2 in the rankings, behind only Aryna Sabalenka and ahead of Coco Gauff.
It means Swiatek, who ceded the top spot to Sabalenka last October and slid as low as No. 8, couldn't face the 2024 champion at Flushing Meadows until the final.
“Wherever Swiatek’s ranked, she’s playing like a No. 1 again,” was the observation from three-time major champion Lindsay Davenport on Tennis Channel’s telecast of the Cincinnati Open final on Monday.
That's when Swiatek defeated Jasmine Paolini 7-5, 6-4 with the help of nine aces to complete a run through the hard-court tournament without dropping a set. That allowed Swiatek to earn her 11th career title at a WTA Masters 1000, the second-highest total (behind only the 13 for Serena Williams) since 2009.
This latest triumph also gave Swiatek her second trophy in her past three events — the other came on the grass courts of the All England Club on July 12 — following a drought of more than a year without so much as reaching a final anywhere.
Yes, it wasn’t all that long ago that Swiatek was dealing with a difficult stretch, on the court and off it.
In addition to the disappointing-for-her results, there was the not-insignificant matter of a doping case connected to a tainted sleeping aid and an agreed-upon ban of one month.
“It wasn’t easy,” Swiatek said.
But she got through it all and is playing with the sort of freedom that was missing for some time and the mental toughness that she proudly symbolized Monday by jutting her index finger at her temple on the way up to the net for a handshake after closing things out against Paolini with an ace.
It was a performance that showed off key traits Swiatek possesses.
The bigger-than-ever serve. The imposing forehand. Point-altering court coverage, all anticipation and tiny steps.
“You're playing amazing,” Paolini told Swiatek during the trophy ceremony.
It's noteworthy that she's doing so on faster surfaces these days, after being mistakenly labeled by some as a clay-courter, based on her four titles at Roland-Garros. Let's not forget that Swiatek already won the U.S. Open in 2022, and had earned a junior title at Wimbledon as a teenager, so perhaps her most recent successes should be viewed more as confirmation than some sort of discovery.
With the help of coach Wim Fissette, who came aboard late last year, Swiatek is not so much a new player as, if anything, an improved version.
FILE - Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after defeating Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. to win the women's singles final at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, July 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, file)
FILE - Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates with the trophy after beating Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. to win the women's singles final at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, July 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, file)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado comes to the White House on Thursday to discuss her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.
The White House says Machado sought the face-to-face meeting with Trump without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.
Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate following her lunch with Trump, who has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.
Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.
Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
