Iga Swiatek first conquered and then consolidated the leadership of the WTA world rankings thanks to her 8 titles of this year divided into two Slams, the Roland Garros and the Us Open, four WTA 1000s and two 500s, the last one nearly two weeks ago in San Diego.
Now remains the last goal to close in the best possible way: the WTA finals. The Polish champion gave a very interesting interview where she took stock of the situation by adding an important detail: that she would like to face Ashleigh Barty.
She told: “After the Roland Garros, I felt I had to keep the pace in the second half of the season. I felt I had to play at least at the same level. Expectations have also increased from the outside, in the eyes of the crowd With the help of my team, I won the US Open because I lowered my expectations and this eased the pressure.
We did a great job on the US tour. In New York I played with much more ease, not caring what other people thought. During the US Open I realized that I could still win games even if I didn’t control my game 100%.” On the finals she said: “I rested for two days in Florida and on Monday we flew to Texas.
I recovered a bit, at least to be able to play the finals. After that, I will need a longer rest period. Today it takes me longer to recover. After the Australian Open, I felt completely rested after two of the five days of absence from the court.
I felt fresh and ready. This was not the case after the US Open, where I had cramps that prevented me from sleeping the night after winning the tournament. I made this decision to make sure I could play next season healthy and without injuries.
This year I played 72 games, so I have to take care of myself. Playing the BJKC would mean another change of time zone, a change of climate, from hot to cold, a change of surface, of rhythm, of routine.”
Between close programs and Barty’s regret
On the decidedly close program: “This year, and last year as well, it has been seen that many female players have paid the price for trying to maintain such a busy schedule and compete in both tournaments.
I hope that the WTA and the ITF will improve their collaboration in terms of scheduling and location of both tournaments next year. This degrades the level of the show. I understand that it must be difficult to choose between various venues, cities and which fans to please, but I still think that the players and, therefore, the fans should have the highest priority.”
On a hypothetical duel against Barty “I would love to play Ash someday. That would be great, because when I started she was the leader and in great shape, and I always had great respect for her style. It’s a shame we didn’t cross rackets and I couldn’t show my best game against her.”
