MUTUA MADRID OPEN

April 26, 2023

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Madrid. A quick turnaround from Stuttgart. How has your preparation been?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I just started preparing honestly today. I had two days off. Now I'm here, and it's my first day of practice. So I can't really say a lot, but for sure it's gonna be a little bit tougher to adjust to the conditions here going from indoors to outdoors and to such a high altitude.

I'll do my best, and hopefully during the tournament I'm also going to be able to kind of get more and more feeling.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You mentioned the conditions. What is it specifically? Is it fitness-related or health or just dealing the temperature, or is it more about the conditions in terms of the way the ball comes off the racquet and bounces, et cetera?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, it's not fitness at all. It's more the other thing you mentioned. Basically here with the altitude, the ball flies in air much faster. We played with Roland Garros in Stuttgart, so my main goal was to play as hard as possible, because these balls are heavy.

Here we also have heavy balls, but I feel like they are more like flying like bullets. You have to control them. And the clay is a little bit different. The movement and stuff, I just have to get used to it.

That's fine. I think, you know, I just need a couple of days.

Q. Last year when you went from Stuttgart to Rome to Paris, people look at clay and think it's all the same. What were small adjustments that you made in Rome and Paris from Stuttgart that allowed you to win?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't think I remember (smiling). I mean, my coach is actually the person that remembers all that stuff.

Well, for sure in Stuttgart I think this is more of a tournament that is a great transition between hard court and clay because it's fast. Tactically, you just have to play fast as well and kind of, you know, move your opponent around, because it's hard to come back and recover from all this sliding.

In Rome it's harder to do that, because everything is slower. You have to be more patient. Rallies are going to be longer. You're going to feel that you're not playing as fast as you could, but it's not true, you know.

And here, I can't really say a lot, because that's my second time that I'm gonna play this tournament. I don't have a lot of experience here, but the main thing I think it's having control in the altitude. That's what I'm going to focus on.

Q. I would like to ask you about the prize money last week. You won in Stuttgart, and you won 100,000. Carlos Alcaraz in Barcelona won almost 500. I don't know what's your opinion on that? What should tennis do to fix it?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, it's kind of obvious what my opinion is, because tennis is one of the sports where we speak about, you know, equality. I think it's better than most of sports anyway.

But still, there is a lot we can work on in terms of, you know, getting equal prize money on some WTA tournament compared to ATP on the same level. Grand Slams are already even, as we know. That's nice, but for sure it would be good if WTA would focus on that, but I don't really want to get into that, because it's a lot of business and sometimes politics.

I don't think I have, you know, a lot of influence. I just can say that it would be nice for our sport if it was equal, especially because, you know, we kind of do the same work.

I also get people who are saying that men's tennis is nicer to watch and guys can do more because they are physically and biologically stronger, but I think, you know, there were a lot of people, for example a couple of years ago, who were saying that WTA that it's not consistent and that's a shame and it should be better, but right now basically I think, you know, we are even more consistent than the guys, you know, with our game.

Watching women's tennis gives the same emotions, and sometimes even like more emotions, because we are women and we are a little bit more emotional (smiling). But, yeah, I think it would be nice if WTA could make it even.

Q. In terms of your first practice at Madrid, what was the most jarring difference between hitting the balls in Stuttgart versus hitting the ball here?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, basically I could answer the same way as the first questions. I felt like it was flying off my racquet pretty quickly, but also I have a lot of things I can change still, like string tension and everything. So my coach is already kind of working on that, and I think every hour is going to give me a lot.

Yeah, but the balls are different. At the beginning of the year we already managed to have the same balls for the whole swing in Australia and Middle East. Here it's still kind of every tournament different balls. We have to adjust and focus on those a bit more, but I think it will be good. We'll see (smiling).

Q. You said about the string tension change. First of all, is that you basically making that decision, is it your coach, is it a bit of both? Can you elaborate a bit on that and why you're making that change?

IGA SWIATEK: I think it's a little bit of both, but I'm pretty happy that my coach is kind of strict with that, because sometimes for me it's hard to make a straightforward decision what I should do, because, you know, usually I kind of blame myself, and I don't know, that I should play differently a little bit, but sometimes it's just easier to change the other stuff.

So my coach has great experience with that. For sure this is something that two years ago when I played here I didn't do well, and I'm gonna use his experience to make the transition faster.

Q. You have won Stuttgart, also Rome last year, Roland Garros. What would mean for you win here in Madrid?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, obviously, you know, I want to win every tournament that I go to, but Madrid, for sure, is still this kind of tournament that I haven't figured it out for 100%, so I just want to get the experience. You know, winning would mean that I would play six matches, so that's a lot and I can learn a lot from that.

But for now I'm just really focused on the first round, and I want to do it step by step. So we'll see.