Nineteen Polish player Iga Swiatek claimed her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros without dropping a set. Swiatek became the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles’ champion. She broke into the top 20 for the first time reaching the world number 17 and is the highest-ranked teenager.
With her French Open title Swiatek became the youngest singles women’s singles champion at this tournament champion since Monica Seles in 1992. As a junior, Swiatek won the French Open Junior doubles title with her teammate Caty McNally and became the Wimbledon Junior singles champion in 2018. She also led Poland to the Junior Fed Cup title in 2018 and won a doubles gold medal for Poland at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics with Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan.
Swiatek admitted in a recent interview that she got stressed during the 2018 French Open Junior final.
“It was the semifinal of junior French Open in 2018. We had been preparing for this tournament for a long time. I wanted to win it. I feel my best on clay and the French Open has always been my favourite Grand Slam. When I played against Caty McNally, I had a match point and I lost”, said Swiatek.
Swiatek began playing regularly on the WTA Tour in 2019 and broke into the top 50 at 18 years old. At last year’s Australian Open Swiatek qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw at the Australian Open, where she advanced to the second round. She also reached her first WTA final in Lugano, where she finished runner-up to Polona Hercog.
She made her first fourth round appearance at Roland Garros, where she lost to Simona Halep. She avenged her defeat against Halep at this year’s Roland Garros, where she won the title without dropping a set. Swiatek did not lose more than five games in any match during the singles tournament.
Swiatek is currently the best the best ranked player Polish player in the WTA Ranking.
Iga comes from a sports family. Her father Tomasz was an Olympic rower in Seoul 1988 in the four-scull category. Her sister Agata, who is three years her senior, who played in the ITF circuit at the age of 15, before hanging up the racket after a series of injuries.
“My father always liked tennis and he wanted his daughter to play. Growing up, I played tennis because I had a lot of energy as a kid. Tennis was a chance for me on the court and make my own decisions. I loved winning and was good at it, but I did not fall in love with tennis right away because I did not know how much it could bring to my life. At the age of 15, I played my first junior Grand Slam at the French Open. This was the first time I wanted to be a professional tennis player I always knew I had potential. I was the top-ranked player in Poland but did not know if I was mentally or physically ready to play professionally. We do not have many players in my country, so I had not around experienced players, who could teach me how to make it on tour. I had to find my own way”, said Swiatek to Behind the Raquet.
Swiatek has learnt to deal with injuries and maintain a positive state of mind.
“People are not aware of how much pressure we have as tennis players. For me, pressure has always come from inside. I always wanted to work with a psychologist. There is a belief that psychologists are only for people who have problems but I feel like psycologists are for people who want to improve. I realized my personal life affects my performance. I started working on non-tennis things and focused on my relationship with my parents. I realized my on-court performance would improve when I settle off-court things. The mental aspect is often the difference between winning and losing a match. The most important thing is to maintain a positive state of mind, because we have to deal with many things such as injuries and risking our own health sometimes. I want to raise awareness about tennis in Poland and do charity work to help kids achieve their dreams. I have many ideas but not had the guts to act on them yet”.
Swiatek has always considered education as a priority.
“School is a big part of my life. I graduated at high school a few weeks ago. The pandemic gave me time to do well on my final exams. It was hard to study while playing on tour because I am very ambitious and want to do everything perfectly. My work ethic can help me achieve many things but sometimes it is just tiring. Studying helped me because I wanted to broaden my horizons. School gave me a plan B. If I was not going to be a top player in tennis, I could do something else. I finished school with great grades, so I could go to any university I want in Poland or get a scholarship to study in the United States. My parents raised my sister and me to put school first school, then tennis. It depends on my tennis career because if I win a Grand Slam next year and become a top 5 player, I don’t think I am going to have time. For now I want to focus on tennis and it’s not easy to combine professional sport and study, but if I don’t win another Grand Slam and get into the top 5, you can be sure that I will enroll in college”.
Swiatek revealed that she has now become a new celebrity in Poland.
“In my country now it’s incredible. I have had a lot of media coverage. On Wednesday I was on the air from nine in the morning to nine in the evening. Now I can finally put my thoughts together and realize that I have won a Grand Slam title. I am becoming more and more popular, so I have to get used to it. I need a couple of weeks to learn how a star behaves. For me it’s a new experience. It is a truly unique moment. I thought that at most I would reach the final, but that too was a shock to me. I am very happy that my tennis has exploded at Roland Garros”, concluded Swiatek.
