AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 10, 2025

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Iga, if you want to give your thoughts ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I'm happy I'm here because I missed Australia. I had a great time in Sydney. Hopefully I'll be able to repeat having this nice atmosphere here.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You are coming into the year 2025 having played the United Cup for Team Poland for the third time. How important are these lead-in events?

IGA SWIATEK: For sure on United Cup, you know that you're going to play at least two singles matches. It's important. I already played some, like, thrilling matches that were even too long sometimes (smiling).

I also feel like I had tough moments, I had easy moments, and I had moments where I needed to push through. I think it's great preparation before the first slam. For sure, you know, at a slam everyone is fighting till the end. You need to fight as well. Because I already did that last week, I think it's going to be easier to repeat that in the toughest moments.

I think the quality of my game was also really nice. It also gave me some confidence.

Q. Could you take us back to September when you first found out about the positive test.

IGA SWIATEK: We don't have two hours to talk (smiling).

Q. What?

IGA SWIATEK: We don't have two hours to talk (laughter).

Q. I have as long as you want. But sort of you knew you were going to have to sit down for a while in terms of thinking about what you were going to say to everybody, sort of how you landed on saying it was a personal matter when it wasn't quite a personal matter. Take us through your thinking with all that. I think a lot of us were really surprised when the news came out.

IGA SWIATEK: I mean, I was as well, trust me. I was the one that was the most surprised.

But no, I mean, honestly from the beginning, like, it wasn't like I knew I'm going to have a break or something because I had no idea what going to happen. I didn't know if my suspension is going to be that soon or not.

Like first three weeks, I would say, were pretty chaotic. There was no way to have any answers to the questions. We just focused on finding the source.

But I got to say, yeah, for sure it wasn't easy. It was probably like the worst time in my life. And the fact that I had no control over this whole situation and I had no chance to avoid it, yeah, it made it even worse because I'm a control freak a little bit (smiling).

Just having the feeling that everything that I kind of built can be taken away so quickly because of something you have no control over, it was pretty crazy for me and really abstract.

So it wasn't easy, for sure. But as I said, like, I don't know, I have like hundred stories to tell you. I don't know which one to choose. I'm happy that I'm kind of done with it and I can play tennis and be here.

For sure this whole process was pretty abstract for me. Especially when I know that I didn't do anything and I had no idea to know that some medicine can be contaminated. I'm always careful, so...

I had no idea that this can even happen to me.

Q. Did you want to tell people what was actually going on?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, for first two or three weeks I just was focused on myself because I wasn't in a good place. I had trouble just being on court. I thought that tennis did this to me a little bit.

I focused on myself and I didn't really go on the Internet, didn't really read stuff because the priority was me and my kind of well-being.

After, yeah, it got pretty awkward. Like we chose for the first tournament to say 'personal reasons' because we honestly thought the suspension is going to be lifted soon. From the beginning it was be obvious that something was contaminated because the level of this substance in my urine was so low that it had to be contamination, you know?

Yeah, I mean, since we didn't know what's going to happen because we had no control over ITIA's decision, we also couldn't make any, like, logical plan.

We started, yeah, with 'personal issues' because I needed also time to figure everything out.

Q. This will be your first Grand Slam with Wim.

IGA SWIATEK: Yes.

Q. He obviously joined you during troubling times. What has he done to keep you calm, keep you blocked from the noise? Are there any technical changes you guys are working on?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't think he needs to block me from the noise. This is something that I've been doing myself over the years anyway.

But for sure, like, he's been really, really supportive and really understanding. Honestly, we've kind of moved on. When I hired Wim, I already knew that I'll be able to play normally. No, wait. I didn't know that. Sorry, the timeline got a bit messed up.

Yeah, so when I hired Wim, I didn't know. His support was something like really great and like extraordinary. Then when we got the decision, yeah -- sorry. No, wait. No, the suspension was lifted before the Finals, and I already worked with Wim. But then we needed to close the case. We did that before the pre-season. I mean, ITIA did that before the pre-season.

Yeah, with this uncertainty, I think it was great for him to trust me and to trust the process, as well. He was really supportive. I think overall he's a supportive person, really empathic even without any this extra issues on court.

I feel like he knows what I feel and he doesn't judge. He just helps me. So that's amazing.

Sorry about the timeline. I need to write it down one day. Maybe I'll write it in a book or something (smiling).

Q. You said at United Cup you were a little bit scared about what people's reactions would be. How have things been in the locker room? Have you felt different attitudes at all towards you, or does everything feel normal?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, I mean, besides the fact I couldn't play, this was the worst thing for me, like what people would say. Because I always worked hard to be a good example, to show my integrity, show good behavior.

Again, having no control over this case really freaked me out a bit. But in the locker room, I mean, the girls are great. I already saw on this exhibition in Abu Dhabi that they are really supportive. Most of them even approached me. They're like, Hey, how can we avoid this? Is there any way that we can be more careful?

They are worried this can happen to them, as well. So in the locker room, yeah, it's been great. There are many top players - I'm not going to say names - that are really support. I really appreciate that, because it make me feel better when I came back and I didn't know how it was going to be.

Q. You know what it's like to arrive at a major as the top seed going for a three-peat, which you delivered on in Paris last year. How different is that, if you could compare arriving as the No. 2 seed carrying those expectations as Aryna will be?

IGA SWIATEK: I thought you wanted to talk about my three-peat in the fourth round (laughter).

I mean, I don't know. I mean, depends on the player I guess. We handle pressure in a different way. For sure you need to ask Aryna about that.

In Roland Garros for me, I don't know, it's always super special. I would say I felt the most pressure in 2023 because that was the first time I felt like I need to defend my title. Because after 2020, I honestly thought this happened by mistake anyway (smiling). I was like, Oh, no one will expect me to repeat that probably.

But in 2023, the pressure was high. I felt that on court and off the court. Last year, 2024, I felt good. I don't know. I guess it depends how you play, as well. We get confident when we see our game. Aryna has obviously a great game to play here.

Also it's a two-week tournament. Even if you struggle at the beginning, you don't know what's going to happen later. You might get a perfect feeling anyway. Or the opposite.

I guess we'll see.

Q. About the timeline...

IGA SWIATEK: As you can see, I'm not sure if I answer properly (smiling).

Q. As best you can. You talked about Wim. He was aware of the situation kind of right from the very start of you working together. When was the decision to part ways with Tomasz fit within the timeline of the suspension? Had that been in your mind for a while?

IGA SWIATEK: The thing is it wasn't really connected. Yeah, so I couldn't work with Tomasz anymore, but it wasn't about the case anyway.

About the timeline, it was like two weeks after I got the news, so...

Q. Had that been in your mind for a while, that you needed a fresh voice?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, not really. Our results were too good (smiling).

But also, like, also sometimes it hasn't been easy. I guess it's always like that. So no. I mean, I trusted the process. I really liked working with Tomasz on the court. I mean, hard to answer that honestly.

Q. Two weeks after you got the news or two weeks before?

IGA SWIATEK: No, we split after I got the news about my case. But it doesn't matter. It's not connected. I don't want you to connect it in your headline (smiling).

Q. You referred to yourself as a 'control freak'. I'm wondering whether what happened with this case led you to make any changes with how you handle or who handles for you the various things you're taking, managing all of that, or if you plan to make changes?

IGA SWIATEK: I already did. But the thing is that the melatonin that I took was a medication. Already from the beginning it should be clean and tested, like, in a different way than supplements, like more precise way.

I changed some stuff. But still, like, the contaminated thing was a medication, so there was no way to avoid that anyway because the medications are, like, automatically treated like they're tested and clean.

The weirdest thing is that the contamination level was, like, okay in Polish pharmaceutical law, but it's not okay in our doping law. Yeah, there was no way to know.

Q. To clarify. When you say you changed some things, do you mean in terms of what you're ingesting or in terms of who is helping you?

IGA SWIATEK: No, because the supplements and medications that I always use, I use kind of similar ones for over the years, they are already good. I knew that they are good because they are good brands, like, they have certificates and everything.

Now I have the certificates, like, for every batch, every lot number. After I finish a lot number, I keep some in the storage kind of to be ready when something happens.

The thing is, like, it wasn't so obvious that I'm going to have this melatonin to test. If I would run out of it on US Open, for example, I would just throw it out, the box, and then I wouldn't know.

Now I'm kind of keeping everything to be ready just in case.