Per popular demand: The Swialys lore so far
After their absolutely insane match at the united cup let me present to you the lore behind my favourite rarepair. They're my favourite two players and everytime they play against each other it's a wonderful display of talent and net interactions that have no business being this homoerotic (don’t worry, I've compiled them into a video and added them at the end). Without further ado let's dive in.
The Swialys trilogy
Iga and Eva have played against each other four times so far with Iga leading the head to head 4-0. The first time they played against each other was in 2022 at the WTA500 in Stuttgart with Iga winning 6-1 6-1. Since I wasn't following tennis back then I won't include this match in their lore (I also think that especially Eva was a very different player back then). But I will add two pictures from the match because they're honestly too adorable (they were so small).
Even though it's been three losses for Eva in the past year every single match was either the end to an incredible run (ao) or a display of her beautiful baseline game and development as a player (united cup and montreal). Let's get into the matches:
Part One: Fourth Round Australian Open 2025 (20.01.25)
Iga won this match 6-0 6-1 and therefore ended Evas amazing ao run as the first lucky loser to make it to the fourth round at the ao (fun fact: eva literally got her spot last minute when Anna Kalinskaya withdrew!)
Eva's ao run famously catapulted her into the top 100, she was previously ranked 105 in the world, so to have this ended by iga is already in itself incredibly important for the #narrative
they shook hands at the net and held insane eye contact for a minute and started the tradition of giggling together at the net
Part Two: WTA Masters 1000 Montreal Round of 32 (01.08.25)
Iga won this match 6-2 6-2 and then flopped during her next match and lost against Clara Tauson (in my beautiful rpf mind it was because she was still recovering from Eva rizzing her up)
Eva held up three fingers in celebration after she won her third game because it was the most games she had ever won against Iga at this point - important for the lore because imo it further proves how much admiration and respect she has for Iga
but the most important thing about that match was their net interaction because oh my god: basically Iga only went for the handshake but then Eva started telling her how good she played and they laughed and Iga looked genuinely flustered (one thing about Eva she'll rizz up her opponents at the net, but that's a post for another day lmao)
Part Three: United Cup Round Robin Germany v Poland (05.01.26)
ok so we were all here yesterday so I don't really need to recap but for consistency reasons I'm still gonna do it:
Iga won 3-6 6-3 6-4 after Eva won the first set which was huge for her considering we previously celebrated winning three games lmao - she also told Iga "one set" at the net which adds to our celebrating every little milestone against Iga -> in my rpf mind this is crucial for their narrative because imagine your opponent telling you how much they took off of you during the match when you previously bageled and breadsticked them. but you're still beating them because you're the best in the world. which they know but they still like to rub it in your face that they took SOMETHING and that’s it becoming more with every new match
this is also important because of how different the vibe of the overall match was: the last two times Eva was laughing, smiling and being her usual goofy but focused self - as if she’d already accepted that she wasn’t ready to win anything against iga yet. But this time she stepped on the court with an intensity and determination that I’ve honestly not really seen from her so far 😭 it’s like she literally told herself “I’ll try to win this today no matter what happens” and it was sooo impressive and totally different from her other uc match against Suzan Lamens - which made the net interaction so much sweeter - cue: THEIR FIRST EVER HUG!!!
when they approached each other at the net iga was the one to initiate the hug AND she rested her head on Evas shoulder (their height difference is one of the things that makes go insane) - Eva seemed honestly kind of surprised by it and it was so sweet
As is tradition they were yapping and laughing and iga praised eva during her on-court interview
afterwards Iga did something she rarely does: she commented on the tennistv highlights post from their match AND tagged Eva AND they also finally followed each other (huge win for lesbianism around the world, I want them constantly in each others comments from now on)
Eva also has only two match highlight reels on her incredibly stunning ig feed in the last six months and both are from her matches against iga (again tying in with the theme of iga being a special kind of opponent for her and also them getting married)
So yeah, that's basically their lore!! Please feel free to add if I forgot something or someone was there for their stuttgart match and can add further lore but for now I'm gonna end it with the net compilation - if you're not fully convinced about them afterwards then I truly don't know what else to do:
