INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 12, 2022

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/V. Azarenka

6-4, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Iga, talk us through the match and also how you turned it around at the beginning of the first set.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I didn't start well, and everybody could see that. I'm really happy with the way I reacted and how I improved in the first set. Also how different second set looked to the first one because I could really reset and really change the way I played. That's the most positive thing for me.

THE MODERATOR: First question.

Q. Down Love-3 in the opening set, what adjustments did you make in order to get the match more on your terms?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, basically I didn't want to take that much risk because I didn't feel like I was controlling the ball well. I needed to kind of play little bit more to the middle and maybe just wait for her, how she's going to react to some longer rallies.

Also the first few games were pretty tight. I had some chances to just win my service games. In important moments I didn't play well. I wanted to, yeah, just play better in the important points.

Q. You had so many incredibly long service games. After an hour of the match you had only finished seven games.

IGA SWIATEK: One more time?

Q. After an hour of the match, you only finished seven games. I don't know if you were looking.

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, for sure I could feel that. But honestly, I also had matches last year when I kept focusing on that, and it didn't really help me. So this time I was aware that sometimes the matches are going slower on clay court, especially where we have to stop like every two points because someone was walking on the stadium.

I just wanted to really keep my focus just on tennis and to use the breaks to focus, which was pretty hard.

Q. Tomorrow you're going to face Andreescu for the very first time. What do you expect from this game?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, I mean, I'm not expecting anything. It's pretty hard to expect something, especially after such a tricky match as today's one.

From my side, I just hope I'm going to start better, maybe start more aggressively and just putting pressure on her, but also playing a little bit more solid and less unforced errors.

Really, I just want to, I don't know, get a better feeling on clay court. I'm not really focusing on the scores or something. I know Bianca can play a really solid game. I'm pretty happy that she's back because she has such a nice game. It's, like, more variety for women's tennis.

For sure it's going to be interesting. I already played against her in juniors on clay, and it was super tight, super tight match. I know it's going to be hard. I mean, we don't get easy matches in quarterfinals. I'm just going to be focusing on myself.

Q. This week you said two things. The first one was about the serve, that you have to improve percentage. The second one was about people expecting you to win on clay. After you won the first set like today, you don't feel a bit that it's hard to beat you here on clay?

IGA SWIATEK: After?

Q. After you won the first set, despite the difficulty with the serve, you don't feel it's very hard for everyone to beat you here?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly you can lose any match. I'm not feeling -- honestly, I feel like it's possible to lose any match, especially when I didn't start that well. So basically, I mean, what can I say? For sure my first serve wasn't working properly. All the unforced errors weren't helping.

But I'm happy that I could kind of win ugly in the first set, then improve in the second. It gives me confidence that even when my game is not hundred percent good, I can still win matches. So it works both ways.

Q. When you played Bianca in juniors, singles and doubles, then she went on, won US Open, won her slam a year before you, when you were young did you imagine both of you would go on to become Grand Slam champions?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly there were some other players that were always on the top. We kind of thought that -- I mean, I thought I'm a little bit behind so I didn't really imagine myself being in the top of the WTA. I mean, why would I? There are so many kids in Poland trying to succeed, and it's not that often. I was more looking from that perspective. I don't know how Bianca felt.

Yeah, I mean, the top of the players in juniors, they made it with better or worse results, but we are on WTA Tour except maybe few of them. Yeah, I think we just really are doing progress pretty quickly.

Yeah, Bianca has the power, has the consistency when she was playing more tournaments on tour. It's not surprising for me.

Q. I wanted to be sure. You only played her the one time in singles at any level?

IGA SWIATEK: Usually you know better than me, so I'm not sure. But I think so.

Actually, we were supposed to play in Canada, but she retired, so yeah.

Q. Nothing way back in early juniors?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, also juniors.

Q. What do you remember from the match you played, the clay court match?

IGA SWIATEK: I remember it was really tight. I remember it was Junior Fed Cup. It was kind of a breakthrough match for me because after that we beat Canada, we played against Russia and States. It was the first match I actually felt that I can do it and I can win with anybody, because she was also playing really solid game at that time.

I remember I just was really proud of myself, yeah.

Q. What does it feel like winning 25 matches in a row? Does that give you extra confidence during the tougher parts of each match?

IGA SWIATEK: It doesn't really matter for me because every match is different. You could see that in many matches I struggled this season, even though I won them. Anything can happen. Every match is a different story.

I'm not really focusing on the stats.

Q. When you play against someone like Vika, who has been on top of the game, all-time great, do you pick up on things that they do better than other players who might be ranked higher that haven't done all those things?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure, I mean, it's part of just the work that we're doing on a match to see maybe what your opponent is playing worse so you can use that as an advantage. Sometimes I do.

But on the other hand I tend to focus on the things that I did wrong, which is not really constructive. I got better at analyzing my opponent's game. I still feel I need to improve at that, to be more efficient on court sometimes.

This season for sure it improved. I had some matches where I tactically played really good.

Q. On the topic of playing Bianca, do you get extra motivation when you do face major champions, whether Naomi in Miami, Emma in Stuttgart? Does it add a little bit of spark going into that match?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, not really because I played against so many players that were, like, newcomers, that were young as me but already won a Grand Slam, or so experienced that for 10 years they've been in top 10.

I mean, if I would, like, analyze their past tournaments for a long time, I would waste so much time. I'm just focusing on what they can show me right now on court and what I should do to play better. That's all. It doesn't really matter for me.