ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

February 27, 2021

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/B. Bencic

6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Pretty perfect display tonight. Was that the best you played this year?

IGA SWIATEK: I'm not sure actually. I don't know, but I would say so that this tournament is kind of the high of the year. The season just started, so I didn't have many opportunities. For sure, I felt really confident here and really solid on court. I would say it's my best tournament this season, yeah.

Q. Five months since you won the French Open, second tournament win already. Does that take away the pressure of winning the French Open?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't know. For sure it's, like, good for me because I can see that I can play good tennis for the whole week. It wasn't like one time during the French Open. It gives me more confidence that I'm, like, more developed player and I can play good more often. I'm really happy about that.

It just gives me, like, kind of, you know, motivation. It's good.

Q. What about the rankings? This year we've had the strange situation with the rankings being frozen. What is your goal?

IGA SWIATEK: My goal for 2020 was to be top 10. Everything changed since we have the pandemic and the rankings are frozen. I know I would have, like, kind of a different ranking if they weren't frozen.

Right now I'm just not looking at it, not comparing myself to other players. I'm just doing my job. I don't have any more ranking goal. We going to see how it's going to go with all the changes. Maybe March it's going to be unfrozen. We don't know that.

Q. You've had some strapping on your shoulder here. Is it aboriginal, indigenous?

IGA SWIATEK: It's just a standard. I don't have, like, injury or something. It's just to prevent anything my elbow. Really it's not the kind of thing that has effect on my game. We're doing that just to keep my arm healthy. Everything is okay.

It looks stylish, so...

Q. On your WTA bio, it says your music choice AC/DC and Pink Floyd. Where does that come from?

IGA SWIATEK: Actually nowhere specific because my parents aren't listening to this kind of music. It's that kind of thing that I've made on my own. But I'm not only listening to rock. Also I like Jazz. I don't like actually the mainstream thing, so I'm kind of looking everywhere for the inspiration.

Q. You like music?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, a lot. I have a gramophone, a lot of vinyl records.

Q. Both at Roland Garros and here, you didn't lose a set en route to the title. Is there something that clicks in your head when your game is working as well as it has both here and in Paris?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, for sure there is something that clicks. Not only in my head but also, like, physically, tennis-wise. I feel pretty good on court. That's actually, I don't know, maybe third time that I have this kind of flow during the whole week or two weeks at French Open.

Yeah, our goal right now I guess is to have that more often because I know I can play great tennis. It's just all about planning, aiming for the specific tournament to have the best shape possible.

So, yeah, I feel like sometimes I have weeks when everything clicks, and that's just the effect of the work we're doing. It's impossible to play at the same level for the whole season. I'm really happy I have weeks like that and I can win tournaments.

Q. You said you're not really into mainstream stuff. When did you realize that you were like that growing up? How do you think that impacts your tennis, if it does?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't know if it impacts my tennis. I was always, like, introverted when I was younger. I thought I kind of need things to be like geeky about, to have some kind of topic to talk to other people. That was one thing. That was probably my motivation.

I'm not sure if it influences my tennis. Probably maybe because it kind of, like, give me lot as I'm developing to different person, listen to different stuff, read different books. I'm not sure.

That's a good question actually. I'll ask Daria what she thinks about it. It's kind of psychology stuff.

Q. The run you had in Adelaide, does that impact your schedule moving forward? Are you still planning on going to the Middle East?

IGA SWIATEK: I'm planning to go to Dubai. Yesterday we decided after the match that we're going to withdraw from Doha because of some intense weeks here. I don't want to have injury or anything. I want my body to rest properly. Also I'm going to have more time to fight with jet lag, just travel in peace, not in a hurry. These kind of things really have a big impact. We decided we're going to skip Doha this year.

Q. The second set, there was a period where you won 12 points in a row to blow it open, get to 4-1. The commentators were saying that you are such a great frontrunner. When you see the finish line getting closer, you have a big lead, do you get more and more confident or are there nerves for you that are quite common?

IGA SWIATEK: It's not about the nerves, but if I'm leading on a match, sometimes I think that it's like 4-1, my brain is kind of loosening up, I'm not as focused as I was before. I'm trying to fight with that. The most important thing is to let go of that thought and just keep doing your work.

So I think, like, most of the people struggle with that. When they see their goal, they're there already. So yeah, I just remember what I'm doing with Daria. She explain to me a lot that kind of mechanism. I try to prevent that and just focusing on being here at the same moment because it's tennis, everything can change in, like, five minutes.

I'm happy that I had this kind of flow in the second set because it gave me a lot of confidence. Also especially on the changeovers when I heard all the fans screaming, I felt in my body that the match is going to come to an end, I was just trying to cool down and just do the same as I was doing.

Q. Is it a different kind of experience now that you've won your first tour level title compared winning a Grand Slam?

IGA SWIATEK: Obviously it is different because I felt like this past week was really kind of calm for me. It's different in Adelaide compared to Paris. I'm not saying it's worse or better, it's just different. The city here is really kind of quiet. Also I've never actually experienced playing a final with the full stadium. Hard for me to compare these two things.

I would say just being on court and comparing the things that I'm thinking about and how my game is, I think it's pretty similar. It's good because that's actually our goal, to treat every match the same way. That prevents me to have higher expectations or be more stressed, so it's good.