QATAR TOTAL ENERGIES OPEN

February 25, 2022

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/M. Sakkari

6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Great job today. Just talk us through how excited you are to reach the final here in Doha.

IGA SWIATEK: Thanks. Really excited. For sure I showed consistency throughout the whole tournament, and I'm really happy that I could keep my level of tennis at a really high level. I was playing every day, so basically physically it shows that I'm really well prepared.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. A great win today. What was the most satisfying thing about today's result for you?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure, you know, the things I was talking about after my previous matches, you know, changing the attitude towards my game. You know, these matches when I play against players that I really didn't have a good head-to-head before, it shows I did a good job changing that. And it was a good move for me to trust my team and also to change a coach to somebody who is going to lead me in a different direction a little bit.

Yeah, for sure it's a great experience for me, because I feel like I have been working like for different purpose right now to actually be more aggressive and be more focused on myself.

It's like a brand new start for me, even though I have been on tour and my opponents are the same, I feel like these tournaments are different. That's really great for me.

Q. You have been mentioning that a few times this week and before about this new attitude towards your game and wanting to be more aggressive. It's what Tomasz wants you to do, as well. I don't think people thought you weren't an aggressive player before, so I'm curious for you, what do you mean by that in terms of being more aggressive now?

IGA SWIATEK: You know, these are the kind of things you can't really maybe see sometimes, because it's all about the feeling. I could, you know, feel that I was kind of stopping my hands a little bit, I wasn't really loosened up.

Right now I have more moments when I can feel that I have nothing to lose and I'm going all in. Actually, you know, before really I didn't want to take that risk, because I didn't want to be that kind of player who is just going to shoot the balls and we're going to see if it's going to be in or out.

I wanted always to be solid and be the kind of clay court player who is going to play topspin and stay back, but really, right now tennis is getting faster and faster. You can see that in tournaments.

Players who are, you know, attacking and leading are winning. I wanted to also learn how to do that. They convinced me basically to do that, because at first, yeah, I had that attitude that, Hey, I'm happy with my solid game, you know. But this is actually making my matches easier, so I don't know why I was so stubborn (smiling).

Q. Looking ahead to facing Anett, you guys have had very tough matches, as you said on the court, in the past. What do you make of her improvements over the last seven months in terms of how she's leveled up her game? What do you expect when you guys play each other? What is it about your games that make your matches so tight?

IGA SWIATEK: That's a hard one. You know, honestly I don't know. I felt like we always had good rhythm maybe on court, and that's why the rallies were long. We were kind of, you know, even in everything.

I don't know how it's going to be right now, because last match I played against her was basically before she had that, you know, great streak at the end of last year.

I'll be ready for anything, honestly. Yeah, I mean, every match is a different story. I can use that, as well, when I have really bad head-to-head against a player, and I should also remember that when I won the last matches, because in tennis anything can happen, and Anett showed she's really consistent and I really respect that, because how she played during past few months, I mean, it's been amazing.

Yeah, I just hope it's going to be a good show. I hope I'm going to be able to play my game and just look forward, you know.

Q. You spoke on court about fearing less this week, kind of difficult issue on sports. How do achieve it?

IGA SWIATEK: I'm not an expert at it. For sure this week has shown me that when I'm playing fearless it's giving me points, so basically, I mean, it has to do with my attitude, with my mentality. You know, just coming into the match with thoughts that, Hey, I want to be a leader right now, and I want to be in control of that match.

Sometimes people are able to do that; sometimes not. It depends also on the opponent. It's the kind of sport where you have to think about that.

So I'm pretty happy that this week I was the one to be, you know, on top of the game.