THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 2, 2022

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

A. CORNET/I. Swiatek

6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Iga, give us your thoughts on the match today.

IGA SWIATEK: What can I say? I mean, I know I didn't play good tennis. I was pretty confused about my tactics. As a solid player, she used that pretty well. For sure, it wasn't good performance for me.

But I'm looking forward to next experiences.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. When you say you were confused about your tactics, what do you mean?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, basically the thing that I changed this season is I started being more and more aggressive. It was really comfortable for me to have the initiative and be proactive. But here I couldn't control the ball. So I needed to slow down a little bit.

I was kind of pushing the ball, which sometimes was actually okay. I played like that since 0-3 in first. But then in second set, yeah, I kind of made few attempts to speed up again, and didn't work out. I didn't come back to being solid.

Also, you know, when you play aggressively and you suddenly change the way you play, it's not easy to keep that. Yeah, so I got a little bit confused.

But still the most important thing for me was to put the ball in. At least I wasn't making the same amount of mistakes than at the beginning.

Q. Had you forgotten what it felt like to lose? In the past you've been hard on yourself when you lost. How did that feel? What was going through your head?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, yeah, usually I am hard on myself. Here, I know how I felt before matches, I know how I felt when I was practicing. Let's just say that I didn't feel like I'm in a best shape. So I'm kind of aware that this could happen. Maybe it's not the right attitude to have, but it is like it is.

I tried many things to feel better on court, on grass court, but it didn't really work out. That's why I'm not even hard on myself because, like, it's kind of logic that if I couldn't find it even on practices, I'm not going to find it on a match.

Q. What do you think this streak will end up meaning to you as you reflect back on it?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't know. I mean, how can I know? I've never been in such situation. I guess you have to ask me next month when I'm going to have time to reflect little bit.

But I hope this is going to be the thing that I'm going to be proud of. I mean, right now even I am satisfied with this streak, so I'm happy that I was able to do that.

Q. What was your comfort level coming into this tournament, not playing Berlin? Did you always know the grass could be the end of the streak?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, I also felt that in Stuttgart, and didn't know. I kind of just worked match by match. I realized during these tournaments that it's just a waste of time thinking about it. So I didn't really attach myself to those thoughts.

And about Berlin, you know, I only played -- this is my third grass court season, so I don't even know if the tournament before would be help. But I for sure knew I needed a break after winning a Grand Slam because that's pretty obvious.

I'm pretty happy that I'm healthy, and I think it's because of that, so yeah.

Q. A lot of people were expecting you to come back in the second set. I can't understand what happened in those last two games. Some balls you would make 99 times out of 100.

IGA SWIATEK: Hmm...

Well, usually when I'm coming back, I have some kind of a plan and I know what to change. Here I didn't know what to change. I was confused.

On grass court everything happens so quickly. I can't just use my topspin and put back these balls and just run the point and hope being solid, sometimes pushing the ball, is going to give the right effect.

So here I didn't have any idea. I didn't tank it, but I just didn't know what to do. Yeah, I was just kind of I hope that it's going to go in, but I did many mistakes. I didn't even want to get angry again because I was kind of frustrated during my practice week and in second round. I didn't think it's going to help me.

But, yeah, I didn't really know what to do. That's all.

Q. Did you think at some point you were going to come back on, feeling like you can play your better game and play your best game? Do you still feel that maybe something can click for you on this surface?

IGA SWIATEK: I hope so. I mean, so many things clicked this season that I think anything is possible. But, yeah, for sure I didn't have as much belief as on other surfaces. Maybe this is also the reason. Maybe this is something I should change next year.

But I would say coming into the grass season, yeah, I had belief that this year is going to be different because maybe I did so much work overall that maybe it's also going to have some impact here.

I got disappointed a little bit, so I don't know if I should even have hope. Maybe it's just easier to take it easy and see what grass is going to bring me.