ROLAND GARROS

October 6, 2020

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/M. Trevisan.

6-3, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Talk about the mentality, what it was like to wait so long to play one of the biggest matches of your career and how you felt you handled it in the match.

IGA SWIATEK: It was kind of stressful. I wasn't thinking that I'm playing quarterfinal of a Grand Slam. I just kept doing everything I did before. I had to warm up three times. Martina had the same situation, so it was okay with me.

It was harder being on court today because the conditions were pretty tough. It was really windy. The wind was coming from the side. You had to change your game every break. I needed some time to get used to that. I did that pretty well after, I don't know, 15 minutes.

Yeah, I'm just really happy.

Q. We know you just completed your studies. What grade or score would you award yourself for your performance tonight? Will you do any homework to learn more about Nadia before the semifinal on Thursday or just concentrate on yourself?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, of course I'm going to be concentrating on myself right now. I need to rest and play doubles well. I'm just going to not think about singles for one day.

But I'm sure my coach is going to do a great job and he's going to think about tactics as always. We're going to do everything the same. We're going to talk about it in two days.

Q. Someone mentioned you never really received any wild cards. What is it like knowing from the beginning of your career you had to build your career without having the help other players like from France would get at tournaments wild card?

IGA SWIATEK: Actually I think I had one wild card to ITF in Prague. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty annoying at the beginning. I just had to accept if you're from, I don't know, eastern or central Europe it may be kind of harder to get wild cards because we don't have any big tournament in Poland and federation can't switch wild cards.

As soon as I accepted that and as soon as I realized it's going to be even better if I'm going to earned it on my own, I was okay with that. I just kept working. I knew that if I'm going to play well, it wouldn't matter if I'm going to play quallies and play three more matches because you just have to, I don't know, get the ranking points. If you're top 50 you're going to get to main draw to every tournament anyway.

Yeah, I just kept working hard. At the beginning it was pretty annoying, but later I didn't care.

Q. How nervous were you today? How will you handle your nerves before a big semifinal?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I was pretty nervous. I knew that my opponent also can be nervous because it was her first match on Philippe Chatrier. I remember last year when I played my first match on Philippe Chatrier. It was kind of horrible (smiling).

I just knew that I'm not going to play as perfect as with Simona. On my level, it's impossible to keep that level of consistency. I just knew that I'm going to make some mistakes at the beginning because of the conditions. I just stayed, like, really down-to-earth and really positive. I wanted to be aggressive from the beginning so I can lead on court. I did that pretty well.

Q. Did you have any communications with Naomi? Did her winning in New York inspire you at all? Do you feel a certain kind of pressure because you're the higher-ranked player in this quarterfinal, and in the semifinal, even though it's your first time in these stages?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, with Naomi, well, I try to stay offline. She just congratulated me and I thank her.

Yeah, my phone is, like, I don't know, it's going to explode. I'm trying to really stay offline. I'm really happy that she's watching my matches even though she's, like, off-season right now.

Yeah, I mean, her US Open win, of course it's inspire me because in a previous tournaments when I was watching her game, I kind of felt she can play much better. On Cincinnati, in Western & Southern, and US Open I felt like she's back the best level of Naomi's tennis is here. It was inspiring.

I also know I can do better sometimes. Yeah, I just kept working. Naomi is a good example of a player that just did the right work, and result was the effect of that.

I forgot the other question.

Q. What the dynamic is, the pressure of being the higher-ranked player playing against two qualifiers? Do you handle that with your psychologist maybe or just what is your mindset?

IGA SWIATEK: At the beginning I felt little bit more pressure because I feel like after beating Simona, I'm not underdog any more. Yeah, I talked with Daria about it. I just kept my mindset from the previous matches. I was just focusing on tennis, not that I'm playing quarterfinal, not that I'm playing girl with lower ranking.

I just play tennis, you know (smiling).

Q. You were wearing your headphones again. What kind of music were you listening before you entered the big stage? Is it part of your mental preparation for matches?

IGA SWIATEK: Oh, yeah, yeah, I often listen to musics. Sometimes I'm listening to calm music when I need to calm down, like the adrenaline level is too high. Right now I was being kind of sleepy before match. Actually I wish I could say something new to you, but I was still listening to Guns N' Roses Welcome to the Jungle because I want to keep my routines.

Actually I wanted to change it because right now it's kind of boring to listen every day to the same song. Yeah, I stayed with Guns N' Roses because I wanted to win, yeah. That's it.

Q. You were saying not necessarily thinking about the semifinal yet. How would you prepare going into that match? Would it be any different to how you prepared for your previous matches? What would the situation be?

IGA SWIATEK: It's going to be the same. I'm just going to focus more on keeping my body in a good condition because I also play doubles, I play matches every day. I'm going to be focusing more on that, on recovery.

I'm going to not use my phone probably because I'm going to answer all the congratulations later. I just want to focus on the tournament still. Yeah, I'm just going to keep it going. I'm going to keep everything the same. Just doing better recovery because it's second week and we are all pretty tired.

Q. Any words or comments about your next match, Podoroska? Have you seen her play? What do you expect?

IGA SWIATEK: I'm not expecting anything right now. Really, I wasn't watching tennis when I was off court, when I didn't play a match. Yeah, I'm just going to talk with my coach about it in two days. Yeah, I hope it's going to be a good match. I hope I'm going to play earlier and the conditions are going to be easier.