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Iga Swiatek recently hired a new coach following her split from Wim Fissette. No, it's not Rafael Nadal, but you'd be forgiven for thinking that the 22-time Grand Slam champion was fully in her corner now. Swiatek is instead working with Francisco Roig, one of Nadal's old mentors, and also Emma Raducanu's most recent ex-coach. And the world No. 3 has been hard at work with Roig at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca as she prepares for her favourite time of year - clay season.

Roig wasn't the only one giving Swiatek advice during their training block, as Nadal was right there on court with them, and was even spotted stepping in and giving the Polish star plenty of guidance himself. Whether or not it's just a one-off, renowned tennis coach Brad Gilbert has loved seeing Nadal step into a mentor role, and believes Swiatek will be better off for it.

"It will be interesting to see how much Rafa is going to be involved, because, what he's been doing the last few days - you see him on the practice court - has to be invaluable. And he was showing her the buggy whip forehand. I thought that was incredibly cool. A lot to learn from," Coco Gauff and Andre Agassi's ex-coach said on The Big T Podcast.

Like Nadal, Swiatek is most comfortable on the clay, and already has four French Open titles under her belt. And Gilbert believes this is the perfect time for Nadal to give her some guidance alongside her new coach, Roig.

He added: "And on this surface, at least you're starting with a player that's most comfortable on the surface. You know, she's been great at Roland Garros, and can she put it together and all of a sudden get some wins? She's yet to make a semi-final this year, but I think that you're starting on a surface that she's most familiar with."

Swiatek split from her previous coach, Fissette, following the Miami Open, where she suffered her first opening-round exit since 2021. The world No. 3 has since revealed that she started reevaluating their partnership during the Qatar Open in February.

And Gilbert has reminded Roig that, even with Nadal's tactics, results are everything. "We're in a results business. So that's the beautiful thing about coaching, and not. If you get the results, you're a genius. If not, trouble in paradise," he said.

Meanwhile, co-presenter Nick Monroe, a retired doubles player, noted how Roig's recent partnership with British No. 1 Raducanu broke down, and warned the Spanish coach not to make the same errors with Swiatek.

"These are two similar players. Emma Raducanu likes to play the first-strike, and she felt like Roig was kind of taking that away from her. He wanted her to kind of work more behind the baseline, extend the rally, work the point, maybe be able to play defence a little bit better, just try to expand her game," he explained.

"She said, look, that's pretty much the reason we stopped, I want to play first-strike tennis. Iga Swiatek is also a player that likes to play first-strike tennis, she even said that a couple of days ago ... so it'll be interesting to see, as you said, if Roig will be able to adapt to the player. He needs to adapt to her and not maybe make her play the style that he wanted Emma Raducanu to play."

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