Daria Abramowicz has addressed criticism of her relationship with Iga Swiatek after questions were raised about professional boundaries. The psychologist has worked with Swiatek since February 2019, when the player was 17 and ranked just inside the top 150 on the WTA Tour.

Abramowicz has been credited with helping Swiatek develop into a leading player of her generation. The 24-year-old has won 24 titles, including six Grand Slams, and has spent 125 weeks at world No 1. Swiatek has publicly acknowledged Abramowicz’s influence before, saying the psychologist made her “smarter” and boosted her confidence during her maiden major run at the 2020 French Open.

Their partnership came under scrutiny earlier this year amid a difficult run of form for Swiatek and criticism of on-court behaviour. During the Indian Wells semi-final loss to Mirra Andreeva in March, Swiatek appeared to hit a ball toward her team, close to a ball boy, while Abramowicz was observed shouting from the stands.

A clinical voice raised concerns about the pair’s professional distance. “If we were to look at this relationship only and exclusively from the point of view of strictly psychological workshop, then it is indeed a disturbed relationship, in which certain boundaries of professional distance between the psychologist and the client are crossed,” Nowicki told Interia Sport. “Unfortunately, most errors in perception occur when emotions are aroused. Regardless of whether these are positive or negative emotions, then we make errors in the accuracy of observation.”

Swiatek defended her team ahead of the French Open. “Daria is a constant source of support for me, someone I trust,” she said. “In fact, I trust my entire team, and I want people around to know that.

“This is my team – I decide who’s in it. The recent media pressure doesn’t create space for calm and focused work. On the contrary it creates additional, unnecessary stress.”

In a longer interview on the Polish podcast Break Point, Abramowicz explained her approach and the choices she makes at the athlete’s request. Furjan asked whether she had considered sitting separately from Swiatek’s coaches: “Didn’t you ever want to move a little away from [Wim] Fissette or [Tomasz] Wiktorowski, to the third or fourth row? Because in my opinion, that could resolve these tensions.”

Abramowicz replied: “But I do what is expected of me, what the athlete I work with asks me to do. And let’s move from that.

“If a player wants to have her own team, and if she wants us to, for example, not smile in the box, or cheer after every point, but rather look focused and be very meticulous, for example, or if she said before the match, ‘I need a lot of energy from you today, so I need a lot of “jazda” (a Polish word meaning let’s go), and so on, then we’ll do it.

“And of course, I talked to Iga about it. Of course I do: ‘Do you want us to make any changes? Or maybe I shouldn’t, for example, do you want me to skip a trip?’ And I repeat again: I do what the athlete expects of me.”

Novak Djokovic moved into the fourth round of the US Open with a four-set victory over world No 35 Cameron Norrie, winning 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-3. The win was his 192nd victory at hard-court Grand Slams, a record, and included 18 aces, tying his own US Open mark.

The result continued a remarkably consistent season for the 38-year-old, who has reached the semi-final at the other three Grand Slams this year. Djokovic at times did not look entirely comfortable, taking an off-court medical timeout for an apparent back issue during the match.

Asked about retirement, Djokovic was candid in his response. He said: “I think I was quite honest in the press conference after the Wimbledon semifinals, I gave some clues about what’s on my mind,” the 24-time Grand Slam champion admitted, when asked if he is thinking about retirement.

“I mean, of course, now I ask myself more questions than ever about how long I want to continue at this level and how I want to approach my schedule to extend my career because I really want to keep playing.

“I still enjoy competing; I can be very demanding of myself and my team, I know that, but I still feel that I have game left, you know, to play at the highest level.

“As I’ve said several times, as long as I feel that level is still alive, still present, I feel like I want to move forward. I want to keep pushing to see if I can have another opportunity in a Grand Slam or any major tournament.

“And also enjoy the support and affection I have received in recent years, which has been incredible wherever I have gone, and I really enjoy that feeling.

“There are other reasons and motivations why I keep playing.

“But yes, there is also an internal debate within me, but I try to focus my thoughts and attention on this very present moment of what needs to be done, so I keep competing, and I might get a little more philosophical when the tournament ends, but I will try to focus on the next challenge here”.

The back discomfort, while appearing minor in New York, is part of a season in which Djokovic has battled a series of physical problems. At Wimbledon he suffered a hip injury after slipping in his quarter-final and then struggled against Jannik Sinner. In January he tore his hamstring against Carlos Alcaraz and later retired against Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open semi-finals.

When questioned specifically about his back he said: “Honestly, I don’t think I can do much more than what I’m doing know,” and highlighted the reality of biological age and wear and tear. Djokovic will next face Jan-Lennard Struff in the last 16.

Novak Djokovic spoke plainly about his physical condition after a tense third-round match at the 2025 US Open. The 24-time Grand Slam champion edged Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3 in Arthur Ashe Stadium in two hours and 49 minutes to reach the last 16.

Djokovic left the court when leading 5-4 in the first set for a medical timeout because of a back issue that caused visible discomfort. The Serbian also received treatment early in the second set. After surrendering a 3-1 lead in the tiebreak to drop the second set, he was broken in the opening game of the third set but then won 12 of the next 16 games to seal his place in the fourth round.

Following the win, Djokovic was candid about his concerns in an interview with ESPN. “Well, honestly I am concerned. You know, nowadays [I am] more concerned than I have ever been,” he said. He expanded on how age and recovery are changing his approach. “Even though I really am meticulous with the care for my body and I put in a lot of hours on and off the court to make sure that my body is fit and recovered well.

“But you know, age is… you can’t fight it. So things are different. I have to obviously adjust myself the way I approach things training.

“Sometimes I don’t train between matches because with my team when I have this discussion, we think that long term is better and that recovery is more important than hitting some balls in the court.

“So maybe that’s going to be the case tomorrow. We have to still discuss that and just focus on recovery and get ready for next one.”

The world No 7 also described the extra time he spends on recovery compared with his younger days. “Actually probably even more when I was younger; it’s just in order to keep up with the youngsters I just have to put an extra, extra hour, extra few hours every day,” he said. “Whether it’s table work, whether it’s recovery from using different wellness machines or good sleep, nutrition, obviously all of it, all of it comes into equation and all of it matters when you go deeper in the tournament.”

Djokovic will meet world No 144 Jan-Lennard Stuff in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows.