MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 26, 2025

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

A. EALA/I. Swiatek

6-2, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Tough loss. What did you feel about the way that she returned? Because she was standing super far in inside the baseline, and you only held serve twice today. Normally you have a really high hold rate. Just your thoughts on that. Was there anything about her game that really surprised you with her being a lefty?

IGA SWIATEK: I mean, her being a lefty didn't surprise me, but for sure, like, she went all in. She made these returns in and pretty long, and so it wasn't easy to hit it back.

She was pretty loosened up and just went for it. Yeah, I mean, she felt the nice rhythm and it helped her.

Q. What did you expect from her coming in? I mean, that's hard to know what expect because she's so inexperienced. But when you play these players and they are playing clearly at a level that they have pretty much never played before, how do you experience that? How does that differ from what you were anticipating?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure, I didn't know she's going to play that flat, but besides that, well, she was really aggressive, you know, and she kept her focus. And, like, I don't know, some of these shots were pretty like out of nowhere.

But still, you know, I could see clearly she has intentions to go forward and to push. So it worked for her today, for sure.

Q. When you broke back in the second set, early part of the second set, did you think at any stage from then on, okay, you've turned the match around and you are going to get more of a look in, and maybe she'll start to fall by the way a little bit with the pressure on her?

IGA SWIATEK: No, I wasn't really thinking about her. I was just happy that I felt a little bit better.

But then, yeah, again, I couldn't hold it anyway. So yeah, I thought that I'm kind of back and I'm feeling the game a little bit better. But I didn't really think about her.

Q. Tough loss. Was it her great return or do you feel you weren't hitting your spots with your serve? Your speed was about the same, 104. What happened on the serve mostly in your mind?

IGA SWIATEK: I think she just returned well. Yeah, I wasn't ready for the next ball, so yeah.

Q. Did you feel like you were going for the lines a little bit too much maybe, especially on your forehand?

IGA SWIATEK: That I...

Q. Going for the lines instead of just keep it in play a little bit?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't know. For sure I made too many mistakes, but I think, I mean, (indiscernible) remember making mistakes on crosscourt, so I don't know.

Q. You had a situation on your practice court the other day, had to make changes around security and so on. Did that disrupt your preparation this week having that unpleasant incident?

IGA SWIATEK: No, I wouldn't say so.

Q. Your early hard court season is done now and now you're heading into your best time of the year. Does that bring you comfort? You seem very calm, honestly, after this loss compared with some of the other ones. Curious if you're sort of, okay, now I can put this behind me and move on to the red clay?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I don't want to think about it too long. It's nice to learn from losses, but yeah, there are other things ahead, and I'm happy that we're going to play on clay. I don't know how it's going to look like this year, but for sure I'll work hard to be ready for first tournaments.