AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 12, 2024

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Iga, welcome back to the Australian Open.

IGA SWIATEK: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: How did your United Cup run with the run to the finals help prepare you for Melbourne?

IGA SWIATEK: For sure it was nice to play some high-quality matches against the top players. Yeah, I just realized that I'm feeling pretty confident, a little bit better than last year. Hopefully this feeling is going to stay with me.

Yeah, we worked hard on United Cup. Unfortunately we were really close to win it. We came up second. Still it was a great experience, and I had a lot of fun.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Iga, you've obviously started the season fantastically well. What was different in preparation this year? How did you approach pre-season?

IGA SWIATEK: I would say it was more peaceful. I literally could just focus on practicing and resting.

I remember last year it was all pretty hectic because I had plenty of stuff to do off court. I realized that sometimes I kind of let myself not be focused 100% because I played so many matches that I kind of said to myself, Okay, I have like six weeks now of not playing matches, so I can kind of chill out.

That wasn't the perfect approach. This year I've done it differently. I was really committed. I didn't feel so, I don't know, tired. I didn't feel like I was burdened with this off-court stuff. I could really just focus. Like every day was really 100% quality.

That's why I feel like was a little bit better.

Q. You finished the last two years at No. 1, yet you seem to have made some technical changes in your game. What brought that about? What was your thought process in terms of doing that? How hard has it been?

IGA SWIATEK: You mean my serve?

Q. Yes, serve, sure.

IGA SWIATEK: We've been planning to do that for a long time now. It's hard to find the proper time, especially when we kind of wanted to do it last year, but I won suddenly US Open (smiling). We were like, Why would we do it after winning a Grand Slam?

The timing was pretty tricky. We also tried a little bit to change something after Wimbledon last year. This time I knew I was kind of ready to just stick with it and not come back to my older movement, my previous movement.

I mean, it's not a big change. Like, I'm only changing my swing here. Up there everything is the same. It was enough for me to have couple weeks, yeah, to be fully committed, not let myself go back to the old movement.

I feel like it's already kind of natural for me, especially because I served like that when I was younger. It's just more compact and more smooth - I hope (smiling). That was the goal at least.

Q. Following up on that, what was it in 2022 that you felt like you could get more out of with your serve that made you want to make that change?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I think anybody who would really analyze my serve could see that the movement, sometimes it wasn't smooth enough. Sometimes when I got more tight, it got, like, a little bit worse. Hopefully we can avoid that with my new 'serve'.

Q. On the subject of working on your own game each year, a couple of your losses last year at Grand Slams, one to Elena Rybakina here and Jelena Ostapenko, big hitters. Have you consciously worked on anything to combat that type of player during the off-season?

IGA SWIATEK: Not really. Honestly, I played really tight match against Elena in Rome, but I got injured. Well, if I look at these matches that I lost, I remember sometimes, yeah -- I mean, at the US Open for sure I felt like I didn't have time to practice properly for a couple of weeks. I only practiced, like, one week after Wimbledon. I felt like it wasn't enough for me to feel like I'm in a perfect shape in terms of the technique throughout the whole US Open swing.

We'll plan our season differently so I have more time to work on my technique a little bit, if it's possible. Now it may be different with the new rules about mandatory tournaments.

For sure, these are the players that are at the top of the game, and it's not easy to play against them. I wouldn't put together Jelena and Elena's game because they're completely different. For sure there's a lot of stuff I can work on. I feel like I'm going the right direction.

Also these matches, like, on US Open, I was feeling pretty stressed overall. It's hard for me to, like, kind of judge my tennis objectively 'cause it wasn't an easy tournament. Tournaments before that, as well. So...

Q. As you look out at the big season ahead of you, do you have a sense of what would make you think this is a good season? What would make 2024 a good season by your standards?

IGA SWIATEK: The only thing that is different is the Olympics. For sure I'd love to have a good result on the Olympics. But I don't see a point of looking at what's going to happen in July 'cause we have plenty of tournaments that are important before. I'm kind of taking it step by step. I'm not looking that much forward.

I remember last year I was kind of analyzing what I can do throughout the whole year. I mean, I got tired just thinking about it (smiling). This year I'm just thinking about until the end of Australian Open, then I'm going to think about my next goals.

Q. Do you know who you're playing first round?

IGA SWIATEK: Sofia (smiling).

Q. Can you talk about that match? What was your reaction to seeing what was obviously a final here a few years ago in your first round?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, yeah, I mean, it kind of strikes me sometimes that we played my first Grand Slam final was against Sofia and now we're playing in the first round. It's pretty weird. That's how our life journeys kind of went apart.

I know she's been playing some solid tennis. She was playing in Abu Dhabi. It's not going to be easy. I'll just get prepared the same way as usual. We're going to talk about the tactics. Yeah, we haven't played in a while, so I have to kind of see how she's playing right now. That's all.

Q. How do you feel about the tournament being played over 15 days now, about the motivation behind that?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don't feel like it impacts me because I think I'm supposed to play Monday or Tuesday. I mean, the system was on Roland Garros for a couple of years now. It was fine for me. It makes sense. I mean, I think schedule-wise it's going to be a little bit easier for the tournament to finish matches earlier.

Yeah, at the end it's just the first day, then the tournament goes back to normal after these Sunday matches. People have two days off, then it goes back to normal. It doesn't really matter.

Q. Hard-hitting one from me. Are you planning to see The Eras Tour this year?

IGA SWIATEK: I will.

Q. In Poland?

IGA SWIATEK: It will be tough. Not to get tickets obviously, but be there and not have a feeling that everybody is watching. Obviously they're going to be watching Taylor, not me. We know how it can be in Poland, yeah, for me. I'll probably go somewhere else.

Q. In disguise?

IGA SWIATEK: Not really. If Jules gets my tickets. I haven't bought anything. It's probably all sold out. He has a tough task.

Q. Pull some strings.

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, exactly (smiling).

Q. On the LEGO thing, it's been announced. It's clear that you like them. Is there more to it than just, I like LEGOs and LEGOs likes me in terms of the idea behind the collaboration and sponsorship?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, it's just perfect. I mean, it's not easy to get a collaboration like that where it's so natural. You guys have been asking me on every tournament if I'm building any LEGOs now. It was an obvious sign that this would work. I'm really happy they were willing to do that.

Yeah, I hope together we can kind of, I don't know, make LEGOs even more fun, if it's possible. Yeah, I'm just really happy. For me it's like the perfect sponsorship, yeah.

Q. Are you building any LEGOs here?

IGA SWIATEK: I started on United Cup. I have this thing that walks on the moon. I don't know how to say it in English.

Q. The lunar...

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, this kind of robot, space robot. It's pretty small. I think a couple days and I'll be done with it.