US OPEN

September 7, 2022

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/J. Pegula

6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Straight sets. Give us thoughts on your performance tonight.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I'm pretty proud of it because I feel like I'm playing better and better every match. Jessie was a tough opponent today, for sure. Second set was really tight. We both were fighting till the last point.

I'm proud of myself that I could be the one to win the last one.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. In terms of improving match by match, what did you think that you did better today?

IGA SWIATEK: I feel like it just clicked. I was able today to use my intuition a little bit more. I didn't force myself to do every step right, all this technical stuff that I've been working on. It was more, yeah, like natural today.

I was able to focus on, like, just more basic stuff. That was nice because I didn't have, like, thousands of things to improve in my head. I was just playing a little bit better.

I wouldn't say there was, like, one main thing because I did what I wanted to do since the beginning of the tournament. But I feel for sure like it clicked and it was much, much easier to do that today, and to keep the focus as well.

Q. Seemed to be a pretty key point in the first set, 3-2, Jess serving at 30-Love. From there you kind of rolled through. What for you made the difference? She said she noticed you switching racquets at that point. Why did you do it there and how did that change things?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I felt like today was that kind of day where I didn't want to -- because for most of the tournament, when the ball was, like, flying away, I focused just on myself and changing the technique a little bit to keep it in.

Today I realized that I need extra help from the racquet and the string itself because Jessie is such a tough opponent that you can just lose two more points. I realized that it may be better to switch racquets even though I'm only switching after the ball change.

Yeah, I think it helped me a lot. I think also the conditions helped me because it was colder today. The ball wasn't flying as much.

Yeah, I don't know if it actually was the key or something. For sure I wasn't thinking about the strings, and I just focused on the right stuff after the change.

Q. Tonight was your first match on Ashe as a night match. What was that like? Was it what you were expecting? How does it compare to playing there during the day?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly I had such a different level of focus today that actually I didn't notice most of the stuff that was around. That's a good thing. Maybe I'm not able to experience everything, but that's what we have to do on court when we're playing, just focusing on what's going on inside.

Yeah, it was for sure different. I think a little bit louder. But on the other hand I was able to handle that. That's the most important thing for me.

Maybe I'm going to see the difference when I'm going to be watching that match. But when I was on court, I just focused on tennis.

Q. I know for you, you always said it was important to be consistent. This is your third Grand Slam semifinal of the year. If you look at the semifinal lineup as a whole, you, Sabalenka, Ons, Garcia. It's a very strong lineup. What do you think that means for the tour and how important it is to have that kind of lineup?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, I think it's the first time actually it seems like the players that are -- I mean, I'm not sure because I can't, like, say who was in the semifinal of the slam.

It seems like the right kind of players are here who are consistent and who are working really hard. You can see that they were improving, like Garcia. Ons is consistent as well in Grand Slams.

Yeah, it feels like we all earned it. So it's different. I mean, they always earn it. You know what I mean. Sometimes it was just the semifinals were players who were all a surprise. Right now we're pretty solid. So I'm happy about that.

Q. You mentioned the noise level. You seemed frustrated at one point behind you. Was it too noisy?

IGA SWIATEK: When was that?

Q. You went to the gentleman in the chair, talking back and forth with him.

IGA SWIATEK: With my coach?

Q. With the umpire.

IGA SWIATEK: We had a little discussion. It wasn't about noise. It wasn't about anything that was going on on the stands. It was about the code violation that I got. Yeah, it didn't have anything to have to do with the noise.

Q. Looking ahead to Aryna, obviously very familiar opponent to you. Fourth time I think. Could you go back to the match you played in Doha, how important that win was for you. How different does this next one feel?

IGA SWIATEK: I guess each of these matches was totally different. We also played in Stuttgart. Every of these match I had totally different level of confidence. So it's hard to compare.

In Doha for sure it was the beginning. It wasn't the beginning of the streak, but it was the first match where I realized I can actually play really solid against these top-10 players. Aryna was playing really good. It really gave me hope and motivation for the future.

In Stuttgart I felt like I just continued what I had been doing for couple of last tournaments. I was happy that I was solid.

Here it's a Grand Slam. For the first time we're going to play against each other in a Grand Slam. So I don't know how it's going to be.

For sure I'm going to be working to keep my level of focus, determination the same way. We played each other couple of times, so we know each other. It's going to be pretty similar situation.

Sorry, my answer is too long. Sorry (laughter). They're trying to teach me, but... Well, what was I saying?

So we'll see (thumbs up).

Q. You said you were surprised that you made it to the semis. You kept your expectations low. What has surprised you most about your play in the past 10 days?

IGA SWIATEK: Looking logically at last tournaments, I just didn't know if this one is going to be possible for me to be consistent and to win so many matches in a row.

But, yeah, I feel like I've been playing better and better every week since the start of this swing. So, yeah, it surprised me because after the losses that I had in Toronto and Cincinnati, I just wasn't expecting to play so well here. It gave me actually a lot because I could be kind of an underdog again, not maybe fully, but just not expect from myself that I'm going to win everything right now.

Q. Anything in particular within your game that has felt different?

IGA SWIATEK: I think I had more patience for the mistakes that are going to happen here for me with my grip.

Yeah, this patience just gave me more peaceful time sometimes. Even though I was making mistakes, I just waited for my opportunities, as it did against Jule, yeah.