INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 12, 2023

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/A. Pavlyuchenkova

6-0, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Last year you won the title. Today you were in similar good form. What is it about Rome that brings out the best in your game?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't know if the best, but for sure I feel pretty confident here. I feel like these are the right circumstances and right conditions for me to, like, play my solid game. So I'm happy to be here and I'm happy that I'm back.

For sure it was a solid match today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. This is your second double bagel in Rome on the same court. How do you feel here in this court?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, this court is a little bit different than most of the stadiums because, like, the audience I feel like little bit closer to the court. There's a lot of, like, walking and a lot of sometimes nice cheering. So you have to kind of be focused and look at what's going on on court and not on the audience.

For sure for the past years I really appreciated playing here because the Italian people are really, like, emotional and they're just enjoy good tennis (smiling). It's nice to play with them.

Q. Did you ever lost 6-Love, 6-Love, if you remember? Which feeling do you have inside yourself when you are winning 6-Love, 6-Love? It means something? What do you think she thinks, your opponent, about this? Do you feel a little bit sorry or not?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don't know if I lost 6-0, 6-0. Probably yes. Probably like when I was younger and I played against, like, older players. On WTA, I'm not sure. For sure I had matches that were, like, really one way, especially when I started on WTA in 2019.

But when I'm playing these kind of matches, I'm just trying to be focused. It's actually pretty hard to be focused when you are really thinking that way. So I'm trying to remember about what kind of got me this nice score, what I should do to continue playing that well. I just want to be consistent in it.

But honestly, I can't tell you what my opponents think. You have to ask them. But I guess they are also focused on what to do better, what to change.

In my opinion, like, the score doesn't really matter and it doesn't have any influence on my - I don't know - feeling on the court. I'm just trying to play best tennis no matter what the score is.

Q. You don't feel sorry, maybe one game...

IGA SWIATEK: I mean, even if I would, I don't want to lose points on purpose. It doesn't make sense. So I'm always going to be that kind of player who wants to win the next point. I think most of us have that kind of feeling, so yeah.

Q. Three years ago you lost here to Arantxa Rus. You went on and won Roland Garros. What did a loss like that do to you, how you reacted to it?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, it wasn't easy honestly. It was pretty tricky part of my career. I mean, I just started, but career.

Well, this match, I remember it like a pretty traumatic one. She played, like, high balls. It really worked here on this slow surface. I couldn't manage that properly. I was making a lot of mistakes. I didn't feel really well.

Then I remember we had some serious talks with the team on what to change and how to, like, reset, what I should do to feel a little bit better.

I came home to practice, and that period of time wasn't, like, easy at all. I also probably had some expectations because it was clay and I knew that I can do better. Yeah, it was really, really hard.

Even when I came on Roland Garros, I remember just being on the Jean Bouin before the tournament, practicing there. I literally had the talk with Daria if it makes sense to continue everything because I felt so bad. I felt like, I don't know, my expectations were just pretty high. I felt really bad on court. Always tense and stressed, even when I was practicing.

I was able to kind of just really, really reset and let it go. I remember I was practicing I think with Kiki Mladenovic. We made a bet, me and Daria, if I'm finally going to have one practice that is going to be without any drama. I don't remember what's bet was for, but I remember it was about not having drama on practice, just playing one practice that is going to be calmer than most of my practices, but this is the goal.

Since then, I managed on this tournament to kind of let everything go. Honestly, when I played my first rounds in Roland Garros 2020, I thought I played so bad that I can't go lower, so I'm just going to play and see how it goes. Then I won couple of matches. I was like, Okay, what's going on? Why am I suddenly winning?

I managed to keep that till the end of the tournament. That's why my win last year on Roland Garros felt much more special, because I felt like I'm in the right place. In 2020 it all felt like it's like a big coincidence that I'm even here in the final of Roland Garros, for example. It was a tough time for me.

Looking overall, I wouldn't say that my 2020 season was good. I would say I only played well on Roland Garros. I don't even know why, so...

I'm pretty happy that I, like, worked through that experience and actually understood that lowering expectations, just letting everything go, was honestly the key. I tried to repeat that throughout all these years.

Sorry for a long answer (smiling).

Q. I know you're a big fan of Rafa. What do you think it would mean for the tournament in Paris if Rafa doesn't play this year, or if he does come, considering his record there, do you think he could still win it all again not having played any of these tournaments?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I'll a big Rafa fan. For sure I wish he could play.

But honestly, like, I really, really respect what kind of warrior he is. He's always trying to push and trying to get better and play better and just trying to compete on the highest level.

But on the other hand I don't know how much, like, pain he's living with. I don't want to, like, see him suffering a lot. I'm kind of like biased because I would love to see him play, but on the other hand I know if he's going to really, like, suffer, it's not going to be so fun to see him like that.

I just hope he's going to kind of be healthy and happy. That's like the main goal no matter what happens with tennis.

Q. In terms of the injury, the rib injury after Indian Wells, how worried were you during that whole experience? Now we look at it and it's almost completely in the rearview mirror. If you step back into that time, how concerned were you about how you were going to come out of it?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I knew that eventually I'm going to come back and still play good tennis. Well, my team is so great that I really trust them. I know they're 100% going to do a good job because I already had some injuries, even like the ones you don't know about (smiling). My doctor and Maciej, my physio and conditioning coach, really managed to make perfect choices.

I'm that kind of patient who is always, like, doubting. It doesn't mean that they are doing something wrong; it's more like I'm a control freak. This is something that I can't really 100% control.

I was worried that, I don't know, if it's too fast, what are the possibilities if something is going to go wrong. But nothing is going wrong, honestly, and everything is good.

I still may feel some discomfort, but it is really, really low. Even when I withdrew from Miami, the pain was low. It was just the risk of getting it worse that stopped me.

I wouldn't say my physicality is stopping me. I came back quickly and I kind of missed only one tournament. I think overall it's pretty positive.

Honestly, like after Stuttgart, my team was pretty happy that we managed to play such a good tournament. After the final against Aryna, these two really solid weeks, I was pretty sad that I lost. They were like, Iga, I mean, you should kind of still be recovering and you basically won one tournament and you were in the final, just appreciate that we're doing so well.

Yeah, it's nice to have these kind of people that can work with you that way that you're not going to get out of the rhythm suddenly.