AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 16, 2025

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/R. Sramkova

6-0, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Iga, your first time on RLA this year. Talk us through how it felt and also your thoughts on the match.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I felt pretty confident, and I started the match well. So I just kept going. It was good to play in such an efficient way and just finish it quick.

Also, you know, just feel the court and how it is in RLA.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Emma Raducanu next up for you. You've met her three times before, beat her three times before, but she's in some real form at the minute. How much are you looking forward to that tie and preparing to face a player that you know quite well?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, you know more than me because I thought we played two times, but doesn't matter.

Well, for sure it's going to be a tough one. Emma can play great tennis. We all know that.

So, yeah, I'll just prepare as before any other match. For sure Wim will watch these matches that we played, because I don't know if he saw them before since we weren't working together yet.

But, yeah, I'll just... I don't know. I'll prepare tomorrow, and I'll be ready (smiling).

Q. When you play a match like that, on and off the court in about an hour, do you have the need where you feel like you need to do extra practice later in the day, or do you do more tomorrow to give yourself, I guess, better preparation for longer matches throughout the tournament?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don't think this will give me preparation to play longer matches. It's more like the more you practice, for me, it's the more fatigue you're going to get at the end because, you know, adding like 15 minutes every day, after two weeks it's many hours.

So we try to kind of think long-term. Yesterday I hit a little bit longer. Even though it rained, I was able to do that. So today I didn't feel like I need to practice more, but for sure, I mean, on Grand Slams it's great that you can work on some stuff between matches.

So tomorrow I don't know how long we'll play, because also it's tough to get court for longer period of time here at the beginning of tournaments, so yeah, I'm intense anyway. So even playing one-hour practice, it's enough for me because I use every minute, and I'm 100% there.

Q. I'm curious about the decision to add a hitting partner this year. Why did you in the past not have one? Why did that seem to work for you, and why has it changed?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly it was logistics a bit because my hitting partner that I always worked with, he had some injury. He didn't play for some time. We were just, okay, well, we'll go without. We'll use the tournament hitting partner.

But this year we realized that this might be, you know, something to change, because obviously I didn't go well last two years here. We thought we'll do everything to have as much comfort as possible during the tournament.

I think already it's paid off, because with this rain and sometimes just having, like, 20 minutes to hit or something, having a hitting partner who you can tell, like, what do I want, I don't know, more topspin, flat ball, it really adds more quality to the practices.

Because when you play with other players who basically just play it down the middle or cross-court, serve, returns, and that's it, but with the hitting partner, you can work on some specific stuff.

So I should have done that last year as well, so it's not like it's a big change since I'm having hitting partner on every tournament basically now. Last year, yeah, that was a mistake for sure.

Q. Something Wim suggested, or you came to the conclusion yourself?

IGA SWIATEK: No, like after last year I knew I should have taken the hitting partner, so we didn't do this mistake again.

Q. Emma is ranked 61 in the world, I think. I wonder whether you even think about rankings when you're thinking about preparing for a player, whether you even look at them or are aware of them or whether you have in your head maybe an idea, oh, that's Emma Raducanu, she's a top-30 player or whatever?

IGA SWIATEK: I mean, honestly there's no point to look at rankings, especially when you have these great players that already, you know, have been through great tournaments and won some tournaments. You know that they can play well.

Maybe they're not consistent to have the ranking, but still, you need to be on your toes and ready because you don't know what they'll show this week. So, no, I don't look at rankings at all. Yeah, that's it (laughing).

Q. I'm curious if you feel at all a difference not being No. 1 right now?

IGA SWIATEK: No, I don't look at rankings. I just said that (laughing).

Q. I'm saying just in terms of attention, pressure, expectation.

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean.

Q. You used to have to come into a tournament with that.

IGA SWIATEK: I remember for the past two years I started at No. 1, so I felt like I needed to show from the beginning of the season my tools and what I can play.

Yeah, there was a lot of pressure starting the year as No. 1, but I think overall last year I didn't think about it this much anyway. Also, I realized last year that I don't have 100% influence on what happens with my ranking sometimes. So now I just focus on tennis. If I play well, I know I'll be back at No. 1. If I don't and Aryna plays better, she'll be No. 1.

I think it's just smarter to focus on tennis, and the ranking will come after that.

Q. You and Emma both won Grand Slams as teenagers. Obviously you then established yourself very quickly. She's had maybe a tougher time of it. Do you think that's just down to injuries? Has it surprised you? Do we maybe underestimate how hard it is after winning a Grand Slam to kind of kick on and be consistent?

IGA SWIATEK: Oh, yeah, for sure it's hard. I think, I don't know, even sometimes when I lose some matches, I realize that people just expect me to win because I won so much earlier, you know, that they got used to it.

But no, this is constant work and taking care of many things also off the court and having good people around you, managing your whole life basically so you can play good and consistently. Everybody's story is different, and everybody struggle with different stuff, but it doesn't matter.

When we're going to be out there on the court, whoever is going to play better will win, and that's it. I'll just focus on tennis. For sure we have different stories, but before the match, I'm not going to really think about that. I'll just prepare based on how she plays now and that's it.

THE MODERATOR: We've got a question from Tennis Australia Hot Shot kids.

Q. How many matches have you won?

IGA SWIATEK: Oh, in my life?

Q. In your whole entire life since you just played.

IGA SWIATEK: That's a super tough question.

Well, being on tour as a pro, I think -- like, I don't know, probably like 50, 60 times. No, not 60. 60 is a lot. But last year I think I won 70, and previous year as well? Okay. So let's do -- okay. 70, 70, and the years before, let's do, like, 45 (smiling).

Oh, my God, math. You are at school. You should count. I'm done with school, so I'm not going to do that. I'll just embarrass myself.

Yeah, but when I was your age, I also played some matches. Let's make it 200? 300?

THE MODERATOR: Higher than that.

IGA SWIATEK: 400?

Q. 346.

IGA SWIATEK: But you mean in WTA or --

Q. In WTA.

IGA SWIATEK: Oh, my God. That's a lot. It's a lot of days. 346? Okay. Plus like 150 when I was a junior or something. Let's do 500.

That was a good question.

Q. What was the most embarrassing thing you did on court?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I cried plenty of times. I mean, I wouldn't say it was -- yeah, it was a bit embarrassing. That's why I cried a bit more and bit more (smiling).

But Yeah, I had a match when I cried, like, for ten minutes I think. Some people remember from here from this room. I wasn't able to just play tennis, you know.

Also, I went out on court once in Indian Wells with toilet paper sticking to my leg, like off my skirt. Yeah, that was also embarrassing.

Q. Did you have any friends on the tennis court?

IGA SWIATEK: On the court?

Q. Yeah, like my friends.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, on the court not really (smiling) because you want to win against them, you know. But I played with my best friend like a year ago, and it was tough because I needed to kind of forget that she's my best friend to win against her.

But off the court I have some friends, yeah. Maybe not 100, but...

Q. Have you won any trophies before?

IGA SWIATEK: Any trophies? Well, I can show you. I won some nice trophies, yeah. Not here, but other parts of the world.

Q. What was the most funniest thing that happened on court?

IGA SWIATEK: Funniest?

Q. Yeah, the funniest.

IGA SWIATEK: Probably the toilet paper thing, but it wasn't funny for me, though (smiling).