Iga Swiatek reveals need for 'reset' after 'pretty stressful' Paris Olympics as she returns in Cincinnati
Published 13/08/2024 at 07:46 GMT+1
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek is back in action this week at the Cincinnati Open. Swiatek last played at the Paris Olympics, winning a bronze medal for Poland. She has reflected on the "stressful" experience of the Games and how she left with more "knowledge about myself". She has also spoken about wanting to get back to "just grinding on court" as she prepares for the US Open later this month.
‘Credit to her!’ – Swiatek praised for bouncing back to win bronze
Video credit: TNT Sports
Iga Swiatek has revealed that she needed time to “reset” after a “pretty stressful” Paris Olympics as she returns to action at the Cincinnati Open this week.
The world No. 1 was the strong favourite for gold at the Games having won the French Open at Roland-Garros for the last three years in a row.
But she suffered a shock defeat to Qinwen Zheng in the semis and had to settle for bronze.
Swiatek broke down in tears after her loss to Zheng and as she returns in Cincinnati she has spoken about her experience in Paris.
"It was pretty stressful and it wasn't easy," she said.
"But I'm happy that I could leave Paris with a medal and with a lot of knowledge about myself. The most important thing for me was to learn from this experience.
"I was proud of myself and I was happy that I could deal with all this pressure and still get a medal. It wasn't like a normal tournament, for sure.
"I literally felt after the Olympics that I need to kind of reset and also just focus on getting my technique back together and just grinding on court.
"Here is the perfect place to do it. It feels a little bit less crazy, but on the other hand, even before the tournament, there are many people and a lot of fans. So you still feel that it's an important tournament anyway."
Swiatek is spending her 116th week as world No. 1 and will be looking to find her hard-court feet ahead of the US Open, which starts on August 26.
"I know that the first tournament on hard court is not going to be easy," she said.
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'An upset for the times' - Zheng stuns Swiatek to make history
Video credit: TNT Sports
“So I'm going to try to treat it as a practice tournament, but not in a way that I don't care - more in a way that I want to implement all the stuff that I practiced on. I think it's the best approach for me now.
“We’re taking it easy, doing everything step by step. For sure, it’s not going to be perfect from the beginning but I had a couple days to really get used to the surface, so I’m trying to do the best job possible every day and entering the court next day knowing I can do something better.”
The Cincinnati Open will see a change of balls from last year as the tournament has switched back to the Wilson Regular Duty balls used in 2022.
“Last year we tested Wilson’s Heavy Duty and this year we came back to Regular Duty,” said Swiatek.
“We haven’t played with these particular balls in, like, two years, which is just another thing to think about when you go out on court for us players because we’re obviously thinking about these things.
“They’re lighter, they lose their heaviness after a while because the hair from the ball is gone after about 15 minutes. I played with these in 2022, and so I need to kind of remember how it was. With all the changes with the surface and the balls, you can’t just expect to make constant progress. You need to focus on adjusting, and that’s what I’ll do now.”
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