Up and close with Iga Swiatek at Qatar Total Energies Open

 Up and close with Iga Swiatek at Qatar Total Energies Open

Iga, a very impressive performance, particularly in those tricky conditions. What were you most pleased about with your performance today?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, probably I'm most pleased with my ability to adapt and to kind of, I don't know, use the wind properly.

I'm pretty happy that I made good decisions. I knew that there is no sense in like overthinking everything. I just wanted to go with my intuition. I'm pretty happy that it worked.

Question. When you decided to become way more aggressive player, you said at first you didn't want to because you didn't want to be that player that shoots at all the balls and has to pray that it's going in. Yet you did and it worked. When you talk about the identity of one's game, it has to be tricky. What was the moment you knew it was the right thing to do? Do you think that now it's actually the real identity of your game?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly when my coach told me that I could be more aggressive player, I just realized that it became easier to win points and to win these short rallies, you know. So I'm pretty happy that I could be more effective in that.

I'm always going to be the kind of player who is going to kind of need, I don't know, feel control. I don't want to like overpower, you know. I want to be a solid player.

So even though I play faster now than, I don't know, two years ago, I'm still the kind of player who, you know, is kind of my base is to be solid and to be in the rallies. So I'm kind of balancing that.

Q. Jessica beat you in the last match in Australia. What did you learn from that defeat? What are you thinking ahead of the final, taking this match?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I can't really predict anything, because, you know, Jessie is such a solid player that, you know, I can feel that she can play great tennis. We will see what's gonna happen. Yeah, I can't like say straightforward that it's going to be easy or not. It's going to be a great battle.

But, yeah, in Sydney, for sure, you know, she played a really clean performance, and that's for sure. But on the other hand, we were kind of traveling, and United Cup was pretty difficult tournament to kind of save your energy when you were sitting on the bench and cheering all the time. I'm not used to that.

It's more like we took kind of a lesson more in logistics, and in, like, I don't know, wasting -- not wasting, but like giving your energy, you know, to the team. But, yeah, we focused more on that than on the performance, because, you know, it was just a tennis match, and many things off the court can also influence your game.

So we'll see what's gonna happen tomorrow, but for sure I feel more refreshed than I felt in United Cup.

Q. When will we see you play in doubles?

IGA SWIATEK: Oh, um, I don't know. I don't think you will see me play doubles this season. Well, in 2021 I played a lot of doubles, and I felt like it was hard for me it treat these matches, you know, with kind of less emotional baggage. So I felt like I was kind of not putting 100% on my singles, and I didn't like that.

So I'm always going to be a singles player, and if I'm gonna play doubles, it's going to be kind of in addition and maybe a possibility to learn something new and get new experience.

For sure, after such an intense season last year, I think it's smart for me to kind of chill down with the amount of matches and just focus on the quality and not the quantity.

Q. I wanted to ask you about what you said about using the wind. Can you please elaborate on that?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, it's nothing complicated. You kind of feel what direction the wind is going, and you're kind of doing everything for the wind to kind of help your topspin or help with the speed of your ball.

It's more about the feeling, so I can't really, you know, describe that. But I felt I did that pretty good today. I just felt like, yeah, I'm having control, even though the ball is flying differently than usual.

Q. Given the circumstances, you haven't spent much time on the court, center court here, as compared to your opponent tomorrow. Does that worry you, or does that make any difference that she's played, spent more hours on the court than you here?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I think it's more in my favor because I feel fresh, and, you know, it's the end of the tournament. It's kind of weird to feel fresh in the final.

But I have pretty good experience from playing on center court last year, so I don't feel like I need more time. I feel like I'm ready. Yeah.

Q. Very clearly you're playing with a lot of confidence this week. When was the last time you felt that good in terms of confidence?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don't know about confidence, but for sure I feel like I'm more free here. I really used the time after Australian Open to reset and I'm trying to take a new approach with less expectations and more like focusing on the technique and less, I don't know, overthinking that every practice is going to influence my game.

I'm just kind of trying to chill down off the court as well so I can have more freedom on court. And for sure here I felt that, yeah.

Q. How do you trick your brain to getting less expectations when you're World No. 1 and overwhelming favorite?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, on one hand, like tricking your brain is always going to be tough, so you have to kind of accept that these thoughts are going to come. It's not easy. For sure I have moments where it feels like impossible to kind of fight it, you know.

So I'm just trying to, I don't know, accept that and focus on other stuff and not really overthink everything and just remember that I want to, yeah, as I said earlier, feel free on court. I'm just, I don't know, not wasting my time fighting about it. It's more like I'm focusing on different stuff and on smaller things that are kind of making me happy every day, yeah.

Q. Can you tell us what are the things that make you happy every day?

IGA SWIATEK: Oh, well, the thing is that sometimes, I don't know, having a bad practice can kind of ruin your whole day, and it's not the approach you want to have because you are going to have bad practices and you're going to sometimes feel pretty bad on court.

So I don't know. Everything can make you happy, honestly. But for me, it's kind of like I want to go to work for few hours, and then, like, focus on different stuff and just kind of live my life and just reset after every practice so I'm not going to feel bad when the practice is going to go wrong, for example. And the same with matches.

Yeah, everything can make me happy, honestly. Sometimes it's even like good coffee, so it's really little things.