US OPEN

September 9, 2022

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/A. Sabalenka

3-6, 6-1, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Three tough sets. Two hours and 11 minutes. Your thoughts on your performance tonight.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I felt a huge difference between first set and last two. I'm pretty happy that I got my level of energy up a little bit.

Yeah, Aryna made it difficult today, for sure. I felt like she was serving pretty solid. It was hard to come back in third, but I'm pretty happy that I did.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You spent a fair amount of time today whether on the sidelines or even on the court at times with your eyes closed and between points. Wondering what are you doing when you are doing that? What's going through your head? Are you visualizing stuff? What is that all about?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, I don't know if it was more than usual, but maybe. For sure, yeah, today for me, you know, I knew I need to be good at anticipation and being ready for the serve and having quick reaction.

Between points I tried to visualize, for sure. Also, just remember three basic things that I need to focus on before the point.

I don't know, honestly, if my eyes were closed or not, but I tried to do the same stuff as in any other match.

Q. When it comes to making adjustments during a match, like you did tonight after the first set, and you try to think about how to change things, how to make things better moving forward, could you explain a little bit how that thought process works for you. Also, is that something you think you are much better at than maybe you used to be?

IGA SWIATEK: For sure. That's basically the reason that I'm able to come back during last season, this season.

Yeah, well, earlier I felt like my emotions kind of were taking over and I was panicking a little bit when I was losing.

For sure I grew up, I learned a lot. And the work we've put with Daria for sure helped. Right now it's just easier for me to actually logically think what I can change. And I feel like I have more skills to do that than one type of way to play, you know.

So I'm pretty happy that it changed because I think that's basically the most important thing on the highest level.

Q. You haven't played Ons too many times to say that it's a whole rivalry, but it's a budding rivalry. How do you describe it? What kind of challenges does Ons post for you and your relationship on and off the court?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I mean, there are a lot of challenges because she's a really solid player and she's second in the race right now. You know, Wimbledon final. She didn't get points for that. But it shows how much progress she has done, you know.

She has different game style than most of the players. She has a great touch. All these things mixed up, yeah, she's just a tough opponent.

That's why probably our matches are, yeah, always kind of physical and really tight, even though the scores may be -- I don't know what was the score in Rome, but I remember it as a really tight match anyway, because there were a lot of ads, I think.

Yeah, she's just a tough opponent and fully deserves to be in the final. I think it's going to be a great battle.

Q. You obviously got to play a bunch of matches now in the big stadium. Wondering, you know, have you gotten used to the noise? Obviously you have a lot of fans who make a lot of noise, but also there are airplanes you can hear and some people say they can hear trains on Armstrong. Have you noticed all that? Does it take a while to get used to?

IGA SWIATEK: I did. I don't know actually, because you always, when you talk about these stadium, basically players are talking about the noise and that it's totally different than any other slam. I didn't know if I would be so focused to handle it.

Actually, these two matches proved that my level of focus is so big that I can do that. So I'm pretty happy about that.

Still, yeah, I heard it today. But just even when I was I was noticing it, I didn't want to kind of focus on that. I just let it go, the thought, or the noise. I think that's the best way to handle it, yeah.

But, yeah, we can hear it, for sure.

Q. After that second set, 6-1 and seemingly having that momentum, getting broken right away and falling behind 2-Love, what were you telling yourself that you needed to do through that final set? It seemed very methodical and very clear, watching you, what you were trying to do, but can you just articulate that?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, I knew I have nothing to lose, basically.

I feel like Aryna served pretty well today, better than on our other matches. So I think just mentally maybe these two games that I lost kind of helped me to get back on ground and realize I still have a lot of expectations even though the second set was pretty dominant.

Yeah, I tried to actually, I don't know... I think I backed up a little bit maybe on the return, but I just went all in, you know. This time it actually gave me a lot, and the balls that I played went in (smiling).

I'm pretty happy because I feel like we were both kind of sometimes risking, because the pace was really, really high. So yeah.

Q. I'm wondering if both throughout the year and throughout this tournament where you have had to kind of get out of a couple of tricky situations now, you spoke about how the conditions weren't your favorite, ball and everything, if your level of trust in yourself has kind of overcome all of those things, if that's changed at all from maybe the beginning of the major season?

IGA SWIATEK: That's a really good question.

I feel like my level of trust should be for sure higher. But, yeah, I'm that kind of person who is not yet trusting myself (smiling).

I feel like I trust myself for sure on clay, and maybe also other surfaces. Here I just try to accept maybe that sometimes I'm not going to trust myself, and I still need to prove myself in a couple of matches maybe against heavy hitters to see how it's going to go and maybe come back a couple more times. Maybe I'm the kind of person who is never going to trust myself. I don't care, actually.

It's not like it's something negative for me. For sure, having doubts is not nice, but I also find it pretty motivating to actually, you know, try to get better and try to find new skills to get as close to the trust as possible.

Q. How do you feel, then, to make a major final at a tournament where maybe you weren't trusting yourself as much and you didn't necessarily come into the tournament with the confidence level that you had had earlier in the season?

IGA SWIATEK: I just feel like the work that I did pays off. I feel like if even though I lost in Toronto and Cincinnati pretty early, you're going to kind of have your chances and you have to be ready during that time to actually use them and not be held on after, I don't know, some losses that you had.

I'm pretty happy that on this tournament I just was kind of fresh actual mentally to actually use the chances. I'm pretty happy that even though maybe I wasn't feeling 100% perfectly from the beginning of the tournament, I was still able to get better and better and to play really solid game.

It's the best thing basically. Like on clay, you know, I feel just perfect, you know. But for me actually winning when I'm not feeling perfectly, it's the best kind of thing and best feeling. The satisfaction is pretty big, yeah.

Q. You said before that you went all in and you were happy that the shots started going in when you needed them to. I just wonder, what was it about tonight that maybe it is about that trust you were talking about, but maybe explain that if you can.

IGA SWIATEK: One more time?

Q. About you said you went all in and the shots went in. Why did that happen?

IGA SWIATEK: I just feel like you have to do that kind of sometimes against Aryna, because she's playing such -- she's trying to be really dominant, and she's playing really aggressively. Sometimes just maybe pushing her back a little bit is the best thing you can do because when she's gonna be, you know, going forward, it's hard to stop her (smiling).

So, yeah, I need to kind of to go all in to change the momentum a little bit in third set, yeah.

Q. A lot of the champions in the past, they often have big comebacks when they are down in matches in big tournaments. In your first two slams, I know you had a lot of tough matches but... Wondering how important it is to know that when you're down 4-2 today you can come back and have that experience going forward?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, it's a lot. It also gave me a lot after fourth round, so it kind of gives you a little bit of that trust that we were talking about that you can handle any situation that is out there.

Yeah, maybe some just confidence that next time you know what skill to choose and what solution to have kind of.

Yeah, it's the best experience you can have for next matches, for sure.

Q. This tournament was quite unique for everyone, because the first week was all about Serena, and in general, the focus, there is a lot of focus on Americans and everything, whereas you, there are so many eyes on you heading into the French and the streak and all these things. Has it felt different for you, and has even week one felt different to week two, or has that helped, affected your mentality?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't know, honestly. I was actually thinking about that every time I basically watched Serena. I have never been in a situation like being No. 1 and being in this tournament, so it's hard for me to say.

It's hard for me to compare, but yeah, maybe a little bit it took a little bit pressure off me. But for sure just not playing well before also took some pressure off.

I mean, it's not like I was aiming to do that, but I'm pretty happy that I converted it in a positive way.

Q. You were vocal about your feelings about the balls, and...

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah.

Q. But now you're in the final, and I'm curious, has that changed your mentality a little bit about what you are capable of irrespective of conditions, balls, court, everything?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, actually it did. In Indian Wells I had pretty similar situation, because it's so dry out there that I had also hard time controlling the ball.

And at the end, I did, and I played some, yeah, three-set matches, but still I was the one to win it. It's something that I needed, you know, that I didn't have when I was younger to actually be able to sometimes maybe not win ugly but, yeah, win when you're not feeling 100% on.

It's great actually because I feel like the best players out there who are able to do that are the biggest champions. So I'm also aiming to find that more and more often, yeah.

Q. Do you regret you said it out loud, that you hate the balls and all your opponents knew that you hate them?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't know, I don't know. It's not like I still, you know, like it, but I feel like I got used to this different game style and actually being really focused on finishing the shots and everything, yeah.