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.”

Rick Macci, the veteran coach, set out a clear appraisal of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner after their recent rivalry reached a new peak. Between them they have claimed the last seven Grand Slam titles since the start of 2024, Sinner winning four and Alcaraz three. The pair have met in the finals at the last four events they have played, including the last two major championship matches.

Alcaraz produced a dramatic French Open victory, saving three match points to beat Sinner in a five-set classic that lasted five hours and 29 minutes. Sinner returned the favour at Wimbledon, beating Alcaraz in four sets to lift that title last month. With both men showing such sustained excellence, Macci offered a long-term projection for their Grand Slam totals.

In an exclusive interview, Macci backed both Alcaraz and Sinner to reach double figures in terms of Grand Slam titles.

“Listen, I think we’re seeing something very special in real time,” said the American, who coached Venus and Serena Williams.

Macci added context about projection and risk: “People are always gonna have their opinion, even four years ago when I said this about Alcaraz, where this was going with Sinner. And now here we are and here they are, and when I sit there – I don’t like throwing double digit Grand Slams out there – but to me, barring injury, mail it in.

“But you don’t wanna put ‘em in the rare air with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, you don’t even wanna go there because it’s such a journey, because there’s injury and so many things that can make a left turn for you.”

He praised their characters and mental make-up: “At the end of the day, they’re both amazing role models because they’re great people. And I think for parents and coaches, you wanna follow guys like that just like people would with Federer.

“And then you’ve got Alcaraz, he’ll lose a 20-ball rally and smile at you! I mean what is that all about? You go on about flipping pressure. And this is what coaches have to try to stress because let’s face it, everybody gets nervous, everybody chokes, it’s a pressure cooker out there.

“And Sinner, he’s almost like a machine. He’s the best on the planet ‘cause his mind’s made of granite. Just watch what they’re doing… I don’t see anybody, I don’t see anybody – barring injury – there’s no one in that neighbourhood now. It’s those two.

“That doesn’t mean they’re going undefeated, that doesn’t mean people can’t beat ‘em. I mean, you don’t feel like playing, you’re gonna lose. Three out of five [sets] at a Slam is trickier because it’s more mental.

“But they’re in a different category. And you can back the truck up to Federer, Nadal, Djokovic – when they played the Slams, you almost knew one of those three were gonna win it. Very seldom did you have a cameo.

“So yeah, we’re seeing greatness right in front of us. And hopefully neither of them get hurt and we can be enjoying this for the next 12, 15 years.”

Sinner and Alcaraz are competing at the 2025 US Open, where they could meet in yet another final.

Emma Raducanu produced one of her cleanest performances of the season in a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Janice Tjen on Wednesday, and the scoreboard only told part of the story. The more revealing detail was the tone from the sideline, where new coach Francisco Roig kept up a steady stream of instructions, including an offhand line that stuck with Raducanu: “That’s normal.”

Raducanu admits she does not always catch everything he says. “You don’t really hear it unless you’re kind of lip-reading,” she says of Roig’s flow of chatter from the sidelines. Still, the message was clear during a first-set stretch when Raducanu led 3-0 and repeatedly chose to maintain pressure rather than coast. That approach helped her remove Tjen’s big forehand from play and put the younger player on the defensive.

Statistically the match was as tidy as Raducanu could have hoped for: eight aces, zero double faults, 79 percent of first serves in and 76 percent of points won on those serves. She finished with 16 winners to eight unforced errors and was not broken.

Raducanu called Tjen a “dangerous” opponent and noted she stayed vigilant throughout. “Of course I was on full alert playing today,” Raducanu said. “I thought any ball that I put mid-court was going to be punished. So I’m very pleased with how I kept dictating the points, I kept dictating the play, and didn’t let her too often get her front foot on the court.”

The pairing with Roig is new this summer and has already ramped up the work. They added an extra hour of practice after her first-round match, and Raducanu believes the recent emphasis is paying off. “I feel in the last few weeks I’ve really kind of stepped up with what I’m doing,” she said. “I’m really happy with the people I have in my corner.”

“Francis is a very good coach, and a man who can help Raducanu improve technically—he puts a lot of attention on this,” Toni Nadal told the BBC earlier this month.

Raducanu acknowledged a brief twinge of stiffness in her back late in the match but shrugged it off. “I’ve been doing a lot of training, and I’m just happy it didn’t affect me too much in the second set,” she said. “I think that from now on, I’m just going to focus on staying sharp and still practicing when I need to.”

With Roig emphasizing technique and routine, Raducanu appears to be settling into a clearer daily pattern as she prepares for the next round, where she could face Elena Rybakina.