Swiatek: "If I play well, I know I will return to No. 1"

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Iga Swiatek will be happy with the start of the 2025 Australian Open she is having. After a hard-fought victory against Siniakova in the first round, tonight against Sramkova, the difficulties were reduced to a minimum, to the point of not facing a single break point in the 60 minutes the match lasted. Later, already having secured her spot in the third round, the Polish player went to the press conference to share her thoughts. By the way, now fate will make her share the court with Emma Raducanu, a match that everyone is eagerly awaiting. Even the protagonists themselves.

Fourth encounter with Raducanu

“You know much more than me, I thought we had only faced each other twice, but it doesn’t matter. Surely it will be a tough match, Emma can play very good tennis, we all know that. So yes, I will prepare as for any other match, I'm sure Wim (Fissette) will watch all the matches we have played because I don’t know if he saw them before, since we didn't work together yet. I will prepare thoroughly, hoping to be ready”.

Victory in less than an hour

“I don’t think this match gives me the preparation to play longer matches. It's also not true that the more you train, the more tired you will be later. The key is to add 15 extra minutes every day; if you add it up after two weeks, it ends up being many hours. We try to think long term, yesterday I hit a bit more, even though it rained. Today, I didn't feel like I needed more training, although in Grand Slams, it's great that you can work on some things between matches. I don't know how long we will play tomorrow, but my intention is always to give the same intensity, sometimes one hour of training is enough to be at 100%”.

Adding a hitting partner

“It's all a logistical issue because my former hitting partner, who I always worked with, got injured. That forced me to use sparring partners from the tournaments until this year when we realized we had to change it, especially because it didn't go well for me here in the last two years. We thought about adding the greatest comforts during the tournament, which is already paying off; having a hitting partner greatly enhances the quality of the practices. When you play with other players, they only play in the middle of the court, serve, and return, that's all, but with a hitting partner, you can work on specific aspects. I should have done this last year, but it wasn’t until now that I finally have a hitting partner at each tournament. It was a mistake not to have added it in 2024”.

Raducanu’s ranking

“It doesn’t make much sense to look at rankings, especially with these top players who have been through major tournaments, even won some. You know they can play very well, regardless of what the ranking says. Maybe they are not as consistent to have a much better ranking, but still, you have to be ready because you never know what version they will show that week. So no, I don’t pay attention to rankings at all”.

Does not being No. 1 concern you?

“I remember that in the last two years, I started as No. 1 in the world, so I felt I needed to show my best from the beginning of the season, what I could play. There was a lot of pressure at those starts of the year, but in 2024, I didn’t think much about this anymore. I realized that sometimes I don’t have 100% influence on what happens regarding my ranking, so now I just focus on my tennis. If I play well, I know I will return to world No. 1. If I don’t, and Aryna plays better, then it will be her. I think the smartest thing is to focus on tennis; the ranking will come later”.

The pressure of being a Grand Slam champion

“It's hard, sometimes even when I lose matches, I realize that people only expect me to win because I’ve won a lot before, they got used to it. However, it's based on constant work and taking care of many aspects off the court, having good people around, and managing your life so you can play well. Everyone’s story is different, everyone struggles with different aspects, so it doesn’t matter. When we are out there, the one who plays better will win, that's it. I will just focus on tennis; we have different stories, so I won't think about any of that. I will only prepare according to how she's playing now, nothing else”.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Swiatek: “Si juego bien sé que volveré al Nº1”