How world No. 1 Iga Swiatek cracked tennis code
RIYADH: Simply over every week in the past, an exhausted Iga Swiatek sat down with a small group of journalists in a quiet nook of the media middle underneath the Philippe Chatrier stadium at Roland Garros to debate her emotions after lifting the second Grand Slam trophy of her younger profession.
The world No. 1 engaged in some idle chat earlier than everybody assembled for the roundtable. She spoke about heading to the close by Bois de Boulogne – a public park near Roland Garros – a minimum of 4 or 5 occasions through the match fortnight, the place she tried to attach with nature and calm down on her days off.
She expressed an curiosity in attending the subsequent day’s males’s ultimate between her idol Rafael Nadal and Norwegian Casper Ruud and questioned if it could be an extended showdown.
Swiatek’s personal French Open ultimate that afternoon, in opposition to American teenager Coco Gauff, had lasted simply 68 minutes.
That triumph on Parisian clay noticed Swiatek lengthen her present successful streak to 35 matches, the joint-longest unbeaten run in girls’s tennis this century. Solely two tennis gamers have put collectively longer successful streaks within the 2000s: Novak Djokovic (43) and Roger Federer (41).
The 21-year-old from Poland has received her final six consecutive tournaments – she has not misplaced a match since February – and heads to Wimbledon later this month a category aside from the remainder of the sector.
Swiatek sits atop the ladies’s rankings with a complete of 8,631 factors; her closest rival, world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit is over 4,000 factors adrift.
An enchanting younger thoughts that loves math and likelihood and travels the tennis tour with a sports activities psychologist that has given her the instruments to realize a psychological edge over her rivals on court docket, Swiatek gave some perception into how she has been approaching these previous few months, how she dealt with the stress in Paris, and the place her higher ambitions lie.
She looks like she has cracked the code
The best way Swiatek assumed the position of world No. 1 so seamlessly after Ashleigh Barty’s shock retirement in March has been outstanding. Be it from the psychological facet of the game or the technical facets of the sport, it appears Swiatek has in some way cracked the code of tennis.
When she is in bother on court docket, she finds a strategy to resolve the issue and comes out on prime. Within the face of immense stress, she rises above it.
From the surface, it appears as if Swiatek presently has the cheat codes for the sport in her again pocket and that she has a solution for no matter comes her method. Does it really feel that method for her?
She stated: “Sure, I do, and that’s nice, as a result of I’ve by no means felt like that earlier than, and it offers loads when it comes to simply being assured and never being so scared.
“As a result of I used to be scared loads earlier than matches; I nonetheless do generally however it’s a lot, a lot better to know I can provide you with options and actually resolve issues. It’s completely completely different.”
She isn’t brief on motivation
Swiatek loved a powerful begin to 2022, making the semi-finals on the Australian Open because of adopting a extra aggressive sport that has helped her change into a power on onerous courts, alongside her beloved clay.
When she received Doha, Indian Wells, and Miami back-to-back-to-back, she grew to become the primary participant to ever win the primary three Ladies’s Tennis Affiliation 1000-level tournaments of the season. Within the course of, she additionally grew to become No. 1 on the earth.
For some, that may be loads to digest, and it could have been comprehensible had Swiatek taken a while to regulate to her new place on the prime. However she didn’t, and as a substitute, she dug deep and saved on successful, sweeping her subsequent tournaments in Stuttgart, Rome, and Paris.
Was it onerous to remain motivated all through that dominant stretch?
“I solely performed like one smaller match in Stuttgart, and you recognize what’s the prize there, so I suppose it wasn’t that arduous to get motivated,” she added, referring to the Porsche she received by advantage of capturing the title within the German metropolis.
“I’m that form of person who I all the time wish to win actually and I’m not going to let go and I’m not going to say, ‘oh I’m drained, so let’s settle for that perhaps I’m going to lose,’ as a result of I all the time wish to win and I’m going to do every little thing all the time to win. So, it simply occurred.”
That mentality definitely explains loads.
She carved her personal path
Regardless that she received her first Grand Slam on the age of 19, Swiatek didn’t spend her teenagers believing she might really obtain every little thing she has been attaining over the previous couple of years.
After defeating 18-year-old Gauff in Paris final week, she highlighted how completely different her journey had been in comparison with the younger American and famous how developed Gauff’s profession was in comparison with her personal when she was her age.
On the French Open finalist, who’s at a career-high No. 13 on the earth this week, Swiatek stated: “I really feel like she’s doing every little thing faster than many of the gamers and I’m fairly positive that she’s going to get right here sometime and win a Grand Slam, as a result of I really feel she was raised to try this. I hope she’s going to maintain it going.”
So, was Swiatek raised to try this too?
“I don’t assume so. That’s a tough one. I don’t assume so as a result of my journey from the start is what my dad thought was the very best; and he made actually good selections and actually dangerous selections generally, however it wasn’t like I had 10 folks round me telling us the way to take care of every little thing and what to do.
“We had to decide on our personal path and for positive we acquired actually fortunate that he made some good choices and I had good coaches in the beginning; as a result of actually we didn’t have any system that would assist us,” she added.
She by no means thought she would attain the highest
Swiatek’s imaginative and prescient for her personal profession at 18 was to attempt to earn extra money from the game and to be as skilled as she could possibly be.
She stated: “For positive I needed to win some extra money. I used to be fairly upset as a result of I all the time felt I might do higher.
“I used to be raised to truly perhaps be skilled and to all the time have this type of have to get higher, which is usually not useful, as a result of once you’re a perfectionist, it might push you down.
“However mainly, it was fairly onerous for me to assume that I’m going to be world No. 1 as a result of simply considering logically, once you take my nation; how many individuals have succeeded (in tennis)? It was solely Agnieszka (Radwanska) mainly. So, the likelihood of me really turning into a tennis celebrity was fairly small.
“I like math and my mind normally thinks about likelihood so I felt that perhaps it was not a positive factor, and it could be onerous to make it occur. I all the time had a plan B, even after I was 18. I nonetheless went to highschool, and I used to be actually centered on that. I felt like I used to be working two jobs at a time and even in 2020, I nonetheless felt like I wanted a plan B if tennis was not going to work out. I’ve by no means felt like I used to be raised to try this,” she added.
Swiatek ended 2020 as a Grand Slam champion.
She needs Ash have been nonetheless round
When three-time main champion Barty introduced her sudden retirement in March, Swiatek cried for a number of hours, feeling confused and not sure about what all of it meant.
Three months later, Swiatek has taken her personal sport to unimaginable heights and admits she needs Barty was nonetheless round so she might face her in her present prime type.
“I used to be fascinated by that the opposite day. I’d have cherished to be in a greater form than I used to be after I was enjoying in opposition to her and simply have extra selection and extra talents and to win in opposition to Ash; that will have been nice.”
Her subsequent huge objective?
When Swiatek received her first Roland Garros in 2020, she stood on middle court docket to provide her victory speech and stated she hoped she might at some point present that there might be consistency on the prime of the ladies’s tour.
The depth in discipline has led to a lot of turbulence on the highest degree within the WTA lately however Barty managed to carry the No. 1 rating for 121 weeks earlier than retiring, and Swiatek has not misplaced a match for the reason that Australian handed her the baton.
With that objective of bringing consistency to the ladies’s sport already crossed off her record, what was Swiatek’s subsequent huge goal?
She stated: “I don’t know, I’m not going to lie, it’s not like I’ve every little thing deliberate and each objective prepared. I all the time needed to win each Grand Slam, perhaps I’m going to stay to that.
“However I simply wish to take every little thing match by match and we’re going to see. I’ve my targets off court docket, like attempting to get tennis extra widespread in Poland and perhaps offering some services for youthful gamers. I do know higher what I wish to do greater than what comes up on Wikipedia after typing my title. However for positive successful all 4 Grand Slams could be good.”
With the regular mindset she has adopted to this point, it’s honest to imagine Swiatek will hit her targets each on the court docket and off it.
Mastering the grass
Though she is a former Wimbledon junior champion, Swiatek admits she has but to unlock her full potential on the floor. She has solely performed the ladies’s occasion on the All England Membership twice, shedding within the first spherical in 2019 and reaching the fourth spherical final 12 months.
Her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski loved nice success together with his former participant Radwanska at Wimbledon (he guided her to the ultimate in 2012, and the semis in 2013, and 2015) and Swiatek believes he can assist her work out the grass in due time.
“My solely thought (heading into Wimbledon) is I wish to prepare and discover ways to play on grass higher and that is the one factor I’m going to be specializing in.
“For positive Wimbledon is particular however for me a very powerful factor is to carry a superb efficiency and I nonetheless haven’t reached the snug feeling on grass, in order that’s going to be my solely objective.
“I don’t wish to take into consideration different stuff as a result of this comes first and with good outcomes and good performances, issues are going to come back,” she added.
