ROLAND GARROS

May 27, 2024

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/L. Jeanjean

6-1, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Iga, congratulations. Strong performance today. Talk us through the match, first-round match obviously back.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure, with the closed roof it was different than in practices. So I needed some time to adjust, especially with the toss, because the roof here is pretty tricky. But overall I think it was a really solid match, and I'm happy to be back and play some matches here.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Is there something go on? The attendance is a little small here.

IGA SWIATEK: What?

Q. Is something happening with Rafa? Have you been paying attention to his match or not?

IGA SWIATEK: I mean, I needed to shower before I come here, so I didn't have time.

But what do you mean, "something going on"?

Q. He's down a break, that's all.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, it happens.

Q. Two questions: How do you feel about your serve, which keeps coming along? How do you think you served today?

IGA SWIATEK: I think really well. Especially after I, you know, got used to the roof. I think, you know, I won a couple of games even with basically only serving, so that was really nice.

I think it's the continuation of the work that we have been doing. For now it's going pretty well.

Q. What are the specific changes that you have made since the beginning of the year?

IGA SWIATEK: We changed the whole movement before the shot basically. So it's pretty obvious. I'm not, you know, starting here but more here (indicating). We're making it more smooth and shorter so I don't have time to, you know, stutter under pressure, and that's all, basically (smiling).

Q. You have Naomi in the second round. Could you just talk about that matchup and how impressed you've been with her comeback this year.

IGA SWIATEK: Really impressed. I think, you know, she's a great person, and her game style is, you know, pretty fun to watch as well.

I haven't actually played against Naomi obviously on clay, so we'll see how that's gonna go. We need to prepare tactically, for sure. But all these matches that we played on hard court were always really intense and tough. So I'm just glad that she came back and she's, you know, playing more tournaments even than before the break. And, yeah, happy that she's playing well, as well.

Q. Obviously it's kind of weird to face Naomi in the second round when you know she's a former World No. 1. The mindset, do you feel you're playing Naomi from a few years ago or you have to forget about that? How does that work?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, obviously our tennis changed since, you know, Miami 2022, and also, like, our position as well, a little bit. I don't think it matters on court. I'll prepare as before any other match.

But for sure nowadays in women's draw you can play Grand Slam champions early in the tournament. It is pretty tricky because you know these players are really experienced. They also achieved many great things. So they have bigger kind of belief, I would say, as well.

So for sure it's not gonna be easy, and we'll prepare tactically. I'll know more tomorrow when we do that.

Q. You spoke so well about Rafa on court. What are the kind of lessons that you wanted to learn from him?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I think he kind of already taught me that always fighting till the end and not giving up is the best way to go. It just increases your chances that you might win. There's no point of, like, working hard and giving everything to play well than to give up at the end.

He managed to turn around some matches that it seemed impossible to turn around. This basically really inspired me. But also how he is off the court, and he's really humble and really focused on the work. It seems that success didn't change him.

So, yeah, I just like the person he is overall.

Q. Naomi said she was impressed by how you were dealing with the fact of being World No. 1 and the leadership, because she said I would have never been able to do it at my time, I can't do that. I wonder, have you taken anything at all from what happened to Naomi to just maybe help you?

IGA SWIATEK: I did. We had knowledge that it's not easy, you know, to be in that place with all the pressure around you. So basically looking at that, I think my team was pretty smart in terms of planning everything well, tennis-wise obviously, but I mean more like from the business side of tennis.

I think Daria helped with that a lot, and this is part of her job that not everybody is aware of. She's the person that is going to tell me that I need to stop doing too much stuff off the court and focus really on the work, and she usually sees these red flags earlier than myself.

Dealing with success is not easy, and I think we did everything really smart, but I don't know how it would be, you know, without looking at stories of, you know, yeah, other players.

Everybody has different approach. I think we were pretty careful in choosing the right one for me because it's not easy honestly to, like, know that this might be my time, I want to use it properly. And also, I want to earn money and on the other hand being really focused on tennis still, because you have so many things suddenly going on that it might be hard.

I think we were just smart doing that no matter what happened around, you know. I'm happy that I have good people around me who sometimes stopped me and told me honestly what I need to focus on.