Iga Świątek will not represent Poland at the United Cup, according to Onet, which reported the decision on Sunday after speaking with the player's team. The former WTA world No. 1 will therefore not defend the title she helped Poland win in January 2026, the country's first triumph in the mixed-team event.
Onet reports that Świątek has different plans for the opening of the season, though the outlet's summary did not detail what those plans are. Poland's lineup for the tournament will instead be built around Maja Chwalińska and Hubert Hurkacz, according to sport.tvp.pl, which reported the pair as the country's representatives.
The news closes a question that had been circulating in Polish tennis circles since the start of the off-season. Świątek's absence leaves the defending champions without their highest-profile player as they attempt to repeat a result that made history only months ago.
Why it matters
Poland's 2026 United Cup victory was the first in the nation's history at the event, and Świątek was central to it. Her withdrawal changes the shape of the defence before a single ball is struck. The United Cup is one of the first competitive stops of the tennis calendar, and a title there sets the tone for the season that follows. Poland must now attempt to hold the trophy without the player who led them to it.
For Świątek herself, the decision signals a different approach to the start of the new campaign. Onet's report frames the move as a scheduling choice rather than an injury or a withdrawal forced by circumstance, describing it as a matter of other plans. That distinction matters for how the coming weeks will be read: a player managing her calendar deliberately is a different story from one stepping back because of a physical problem.
The decision also shifts attention onto the players who will carry Poland's hopes. Chwalińska and Hurkacz now inherit a defending champion's role, with the expectations that come with it.
Chwalińska steps into a leading role
Maja Chwalińska's selection is the most notable consequence of Świątek's absence. Eurosport Polska framed her position in the squad by comparing it to Hurkacz's, describing her as wanting to help Poland keep the title it won last January. The phrasing places her alongside the country's leading men's player as a pillar of the team rather than a supporting name.
SportoweFakty reported separately on Chwalińska's move, asking what Świątek made of it — a question that reflects how closely the Polish tennis press tracks the relationship between the squad's established star and its newer faces. Onet's reporting indicates Świątek will not be part of the team at all, so any answer to that question will come from the players themselves rather than from a shared locker room.
For Chwalińska, the tournament offers a platform she has not previously had at this level: leading a national team into a defence of a title, with the scrutiny that follows. For Poland's selectors, the pairing with Hurkacz gives the squad a settled look on the men's side and a clear promotion on the women's.
A calendar decision at the start of the season
The United Cup sits at the front of the tennis year, and choices about whether to play it are, in practice, choices about how to spend the opening weeks of a season. Onet's report that Świątek has other plans fits that pattern. The outlet did not specify what those plans involve, and this article does not speculate beyond what was reported.
What is clear is that the announcement came officially, through the player's camp, rather than through the gradual leaking of squad news. That gave the story a definite shape: no ambiguity about availability, no possibility of a late change of mind. Poland's team will be assembled without her.
The timing is also notable. The report was published on 1 November 2026, roughly two months before the tournament would begin, giving the Polish team and its fans time to adjust expectations. It also gives the event's organisers a settled picture of one of the sport's biggest names well ahead of the draw.
What to watch
The immediate question is how Poland's revised squad performs without its leading figure, and whether Chwalińska and Hurkacz can carry the defending champions deep into the event. Beyond that, Świątek's own schedule for the early season — which Onet has not detailed — will be the next thing to watch as her camp sets out its plans.
