NATIONAL BANK OPEN

August 10, 2022

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/A. Tomljanovic

6-1, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Very straightforward win. Just talk us through the match.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I'm pretty happy that I could actually just play my game. It was the first match so it's never easy.

But I feel like I found my rhythm and it was a pretty solid performance.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Prior to the tournament you spoke about focusing on improvement rather than just focused solely on winning. Today it seemed like a 64-minute master class. Did you see some of that improvement that you desired in your own game today?

IGA SWIATEK: Yes, I did, for sure. I feel like there's always a lot to improve. And I'm pretty happy that I was able to put one of the volleys that I played in, because it's not that often.

And yeah, well I don't want to talk about the details but we're working on many stuff and I'm going to try to show you that on court during this series.

Q. Obviously a big news with Serena's essay yesterday. I was curious kind of what your reaction was with that and just your thoughts on Serena just generally and her career.

IGA SWIATEK: Wow. I feel like I could talk for 30 minutes about that. But she's such a legend.

And I'm pretty sad on one hand that I wasn't able to kind of play against her. And maybe I'm going to have a chance.

But to kind of be on a tour where she was, you know, winning everything.

But on the other hand I would probably be the player that loses in quarterfinal against her, so I'm okay with that.

But yeah, I mean, her legacy and basically, looking just at numbers, everything that she has done, but also off court and being such a superstar.

Being able to kind of do business and tennis at the same time, but also be a mother and play well and do four Grand Slam finals. It's amazing.

I think that it's a pretty, I think nobody is going to repeat that, you know? So I would be happy to have that belief that maybe I can do that. But it's Serena, you know, and she won so much that it's amazing. And, yeah, I just hope we're going to play.

Q. In terms of your preparation and the days that you've had before playing your opening match, just without getting into too much detail, but just kind of how have those practices felt over the course of it and who have you been able to practice with and how much more confidence did you have going into this match than maybe when you landed in Toronto with where your game was at?

IGA SWIATEK: Well basically I was kind of surprised, but from the first practice I played here I felt really good. And even though there was jet lag and I was coming back from clay I felt like I was in a good place.

I feel like it's this whole tournament and city that is giving me that, because I really like being here.

Yeah, practice by practice I felt like I'm kind of feeling the court better and better. So that's what I was here for, you know, for this week.

Yeah, I played against, oh my God, now my mind is blank. Pegula, Ons, Pliskova. Some big hitters. But also Anett. And that was pretty solid practice. And I can't remember anything else.

But, yeah, I feel like I'm pretty glad that I have opportunity to play against the best players in practices because I feel like we're motivating each other, you know.

Q. Last time you were here if I recall you were doing a little bit of vinyl record shopping in Toronto.

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah.

Q. So is that something that you can still do now that you're world No. 1 and not like a teenager coming on fresh on tour and is that something that you still like doing on tour?

IGA SWIATEK: I feel like I'm not like geeky any more, you know, as I was a few years ago. But I still want to come back to these places.

And I don't know if my music taste has changed since then, so I don't know if I'm going to find something new. But for sure I want to do that.

Because listening to these old records is more experience than, you know, everything else. So, yeah, we'll go back there for sure.

Q. When you were here last time three years ago you played Naomi. Looking at your progress in the last three years like how big was that match for you to kind of give you the confidence that you could succeed at this level?

IGA SWIATEK: It was a lot. Both of the matches that I played here in main draw against Caroline Wozniacki and against Naomi was like a breakthrough for me.

I remember I got injured after US Open. And I just watched highlights of these matches for couple of months to kind of remind myself that I was going the right path and that I'm improving.

So it really gave me extra motivation. Because even though I lost this match against Naomi I remember I was just happy that I could play such a tight match against her. And she was world No. 1 back then so it was a big deal for me for sure.

Q. You'll play either Beatriz Haddad Maia or Leylah. If it is Leylah can you talk a little bit about what it will be like to play somebody who was kind of a junior contemporary and on the WTA tour on her home soil?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, we already played in Adelaide. So I don't have many memories from her kind of junior career. She's one year younger. So in juniors that's a lot, you know. And I usually played with older girls.

So basically, well I'm just going to treat this as any other match. It's always tough to play somebody who has a huge crowd behind her back. But also there are many Polish people here, so I feel their support.

And I'm just going to play my game and kind of continue what I was doing here and on hard court season this year.