AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 20, 2023

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/C. Bucsa

6-0, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Just to begin with, looked like a very straightforward match from the outside. What do you take away from that kind of win?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure my main goal was to keep my focus till the end because sometimes it's hard when you feel like you control everything, your mind can, like, wander off. I'm pretty happy that I was solid till the end.

I didn't really let Cristina play her game. I know she can be solid, so I'm pretty happy that I was just disciplined.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Through the first week, what are you most pleased with?

IGA SWIATEK: Oh, well, hmmm...

I feel I'm more and more confident since day one here. I'm not even talking about matches, but also practices. I feel like I've done so much work to feel more confident, more relaxed on court. I'm pretty happy that I did it because it's just a little bit easier. When you actually played those matches, you can feel the rhythm a little bit more.

I think that's the thing that I am most pleased with.

Q. Does your thinking change from the first week to the second week? You get through these first few matches, do you start thinking the tournament now really starts? You must have a sense that you might have to raise your level as you go deeper.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly, I don't feel like the tournament is going to start now because, like, first rounds are always challenging. It's a different challenge a little bit.

For sure, I don't know, second week, I don't know, I feel like we all already should have the rhythm. Maybe our level is going to be a little bit higher.

On the other hand, tennis is pretty unpredictable. I'm trying to kind of treat every match separately. Doesn't matter what round it is, what opponent it is, I always try to have the same mindset.

I wouldn't say it has much influence. But for sure from my point of view, I can just say that I feel more confident because I played couple of matches here.

Q. Seems like you and Mikaela Shiffrin have a connection between each other. I'm not sure you ever met.

IGA SWIATEK: We haven't actually. We are both on tour, so it's kind of hard. But she always invites me somewhere. I always invite her somewhere. It's like in this scheme it's hard to break it because we're both pretty busy.

Yeah, I really appreciate what Mikaela is doing. She's a champion. The way she talks about also mental health and all the things that she struggles with. I think it's also helping other athletes to understand a little bit more how it is to be an athlete, and what challenges we face and how to overcome them sometimes.

Q. Your thoughts on what she's accomplishing right now? She's tied Lindsey Vonn. She's on the verge of breaking that. Catching Ingemar Stenmark's world cup record. Do you see any parallels at all between your two sports?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I'm not really comparing myself to Mikaela, yeah, our disciplines are so different. Like, we don't have any similarities between skiing and tennis, so it's pretty hard to do that (smiling).

I really like how she handles the pressure because people would have thought that it's going to be obvious that she's going to break the record.

It's sometimes hard to deal with that when all eyes are on you and you have to still be kind of patient and down to earth, really work hard to achieve that because it's not like -- in sport nothing's going to come for free. I really like how she, I don't know, dealt with that.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's going to break the record. Also the way she's skiing is like she doesn't get injured often I think. It's not too aggressive. I don't know a lot about skiing, but it's just what I feel. I guess it's a healthy way to ski kind of and to be consistent throughout the whole season for them.

Q. How do you experience the pressure in the first week versus the second week? Is there a sense of relief as you get into the second week because this is where you're supposed to be, or because the stakes are raised, because the trophy gets that much closer, the pressure goes up in your head?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly it depends because also sometimes during the second week, like physically we're tired, we're sometimes, I don't know, even exhausted, that we don't have really time to think about the pressure - at least I feel like that.

Sometimes when I play semifinals or finals, I just know I have to, like, give hundred percent. Maybe, yeah, there is a little bit less pressure because you feel like you already did some good job here.

But on the other hand, I feel like we are more facing forward, so we're not, like, overanalyzing our results in previous rounds. We're more, like, focused to win the next one.

But, no, I don't feel like the pressure is different. I don't know.

Q. You face Elena in the next round. Once you were out of Wimbledon, did you check it out? Did you pay attention with respect to how she played? What do you make of her as an opponent?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, I didn't really watch Wimbledon after I lost. I had holidays, so it wasn't smart for me to watch tennis.

She really is a solid player. Since we played juniors, I knew that she's like kind of going the right direction. With her serve, she can do a lot.

But tactically I'm not prepared yet. We played exhibition in Dubai. Yeah, I really treated it as an exhibition and as a practice little bit. So it's hard kind of to take a lot from that match.

Also we played in Ostrava, like, two years ago, and the surface was so slow that it's also hard to take anything tactically from that.

I'm pretty sure my coach is going to be ready to give me some tips. We'll see. I'm not really thinking about that today.

Q. Did you play her in juniors?

IGA SWIATEK: Yes, the final of Trofeo Bonfiglio on clay. I lost. I remember I was so stressed that there was a live streaming on Internet, and I just couldn't focus because of that (smiling). It seems surreal right now. I don't know who is watching me. It's an Internet. It's huge.