Iga Swiatek stormed onto the Grand Slam scene less than a year ago in Paris, when she became the youngest woman to raise the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen since Monica Seles in 1992. Since that earth-shattering triumph, Swiatek, a national hero in her native Poland, has set her sights on becoming a consistent force on the WTA Tour. So far, she has backed up her words and proven that, even at the young age of 20, she possesses the maturity and drive to be a steady performer on the WTA Tour and at the majors.
Swiatek has reached at least the Round of 16 in her past five major appearances and she will look to run that impressive streak to six when she squares off with Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in third-round action on Day 6 at Flushing Meadows.
USOpen.org caught up with Swiatek after her second-round triumph over Fiona Ferro to discuss the art of the comeback, how it felt to play the Tokyo Olympics, and what it is like to have World No.1 Ashleigh Barty as a regular practice partner.
Q: It must be difficult to come back from a set down at the Slams. Not easy. But you did it today and you've done it four times at the Slams now.
Iga Swiatek: Oh, I didn't know about that. For sure it's tough. Matches like that are pretty crazy because sometimes I'm not able to play my game. Today I felt like I was stressed out a little bit, so I needed to change my tactics a little bit. And it's not easy for me to find the solution by just pushing the ball back, because usually I like being on the attack. I feel comfortable with it in practice, but during the match—when the pressure is on—sometimes it can feel hard.
So I'm also happy that I can switch to this different mode. Maybe I don't enjoy the match completely when I do, but at least it's giving me points and in the end that's important.
Q: Can you look at it as part of the process? I watched your press conference and you talked about the pressure of being a Top 10 seed and maybe thinking about it too much. Is it something that you can gain comfort with, as you will probably be doing it for the rest of your career?
Iga Swiatek: I know, but I feel like I need just a little bit of time just to learn how to deal with that. I don't know why it hit right now because I won a Grand Slam almost a year ago. Maybe it's because I am playing on hard court and before I had some good results. So here I am just trying to take it day-by-day, change my attitude a little bit, and not to think about the ranking. It's always hard to do. You can see from the experiences of other players that you have to pass that stage, so I think it's going to be easier for me in the future but here I am, just trying to find the solution.
It's hard for me to enjoy winning like that but also it's part of the job, and yes, I have to actually start appreciating it because I may have many more matches like that. I hope I'm going to be able to play my game, like all the time, but I think at this stage I just have to [get through] it.
Q: Can you go back to last month for me and take me through your Olympic experience, because for me it was one of the very moving parts of the Games, watching the emotions that you felt. I know they were hard, but can you talk about how you processed that amazing experience?
Iga Swiatek: You know, I feel like I still haven't moved on completely because you know it takes other athletes a lot of time and they have World Championships in maybe one year and another Olympics in three years, but [in tennis] we have other tournaments so we can't actually waste time to think about it and to rest a little bit, to find the distance from all of that, so I don't know.
For sure I rested, because I withdrew from Montreal just to have a few days off and just to chill out a little bit, but four days is not enough to reset after half of the season like that. That's the beauty of tennis, that we're playing the whole year. It's hard, but on the other hand we have many chances [to compete].
Yeah, the Olympics were kind of hard but at the end I remembered that it's my first time in a tournament like that. It's completely different.I also talked with other athletes from different disciplines, and everybody has similar problems. You just have to make it through, just survive so you can have more experience next time and know how to deal with all that.
Q: In the last 52 weeks you have had a 10-match winning streak, an 8-match winning streak and a six-match winning streak. When you go on those streaks do you start to feel it pretty early, or does it just sort of happen?
Iga Swiatek: I didn't know that I had streaks like that actually, because I am trying not to look at the stats. Yes, for sure I know when I have the right week to play consistent and solid, and sometimes it happens. I can't predict that, "Hey, in the second week of February I'm going to play great," but when it's there and I can feel confident—it's easy for me to focus, my mind is clear, I can hit the ball perfectly and it's actually going where I want it to—I can say that I'm feeling that I'm going to play well. But I'm trying not to focus on that because at that time I have the right attitude and mindset to just stay in the work and not think about the results.
Still, I'm trying to have that more often. I also had a tournament in Rome where my first two rounds were pretty tough and I didn't play my game, and it all changed. [Swiatek saved match points early in the tournament and won by handing Karolina Pliskova a 6-0, 6-0 decision in the final]. It was the first tournament for me like that, but still it shows how inexperienced I am sometimes. Even though I won a Grand Slam and two other titles right now, I still haven't been in all of the situations and I don't have solutions to everything, so we're going to see how this one is going to go [at the 2021 US Open], but for sure I love the streaks.
Q: Can you talk about what it's like to be a frequent practice partner of Ashleigh Barty? She's one that is dealing with the pressure of being No.1 quite well.
Iga Swiatek: Yes, it's amazing. I'm trying to take a lot from her but it's also hard because we all have different stories, we all have different beginnings, and that's what makes us different players, and I don't know what is her story, exactly. I know how she described her beginnings and that she took a break for a year, but still, I feel like even though you can learn from others and look at their experiences you have to find your own way because people are just different.
But it's amazing to see. Right now from the outside it seems like she's dealing with everything perfectly, and she can be really consistent, the most consistent player on tour, so in the future I would love to learn a lot like she did and then actually be able to implement that and to use that, but I don't know if it is going to happen. I'm trying my best to learn and to take everything from the bad experiences and the good experiences but for sure she's doing the best job, that's why she's No.1 right now.
Watch: Swiatek vs. Ferro, Round 2 Highlights
