It all started here, with tennis player Iga Swiatek, at the Qatar Total Energies Open, exactly 12 months ago. The season of poles under the sun. Her 37-match winning streak, a streak that has earned her six titles and ranked her at No. 1 in the world. A year in which she won two Grand Slam titles: Roland Garros and the US Open.
However, the jest of the 21-year-old is questionable. “Last season was so weird that it can cause a little mental fog,” Swiatek said of a career that brought her eight titles in total. From this “strange” room of elevated expectations came his greatest lessons.
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Swiatek, who opens her campaign here in the second round, likely on Wednesday against American Danielle Collins, said her focus is on lowering expectations of herself. “I won’t always play perfectly,” he said. “I want to keep my feet on the ground, just focus on the hard work and what I have to do on the field. “Swiatek arrives at his press conference in cycling shorts, a style she professes doesn’t compare the seasons. “I feel like every year is a different story, every tournament is a different story,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to me to think about last year’s tournament and think it’s the same story. Not much can happen in a year.
I want to start this tournament like any other player, we all started in the same place,” she said. Swiatek pressed the reset button after the Australian Open in January, where she fell to Elena Rybakina in the round of 16 while doing straight jumps.
The world No. 1, who is 21st in her WTA career by failing to win the title in her first two starts, defeated Jessica Pegula won in just four games at the United Cup Down Under. “I feel like I’m still in the same place, I’ve been trying to follow the race and focus on competing with other players.
I feel like watching the race will help me look ahead and not at what happened in the past. “The ranking, which takes a 12-month cycle into account, rewards the consistency that Swiatek has been striving for a long time.
FEEL THE STRESS
This #1 spot isn’t without baggage, though. “Sometimes you feel the pressure, all the players want to play their best game against you,” she said. “There are times when I feel like I have too much baggage on my shoulders, but most of the time I feel like I’m still the same player who just wants to get better. Swiatek struggled with expectations after his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2020.
He’s in a similar position today, at the start of a stretch in which she’s won six titles. “I had the feeling that I had to show this type of tennis at every tournament,” he said almost three years ago. “Then I worked hard to lower my expectations like I’m trying to do now.”
