By Dominik Senkowski
Opponents can envy her. This is the polish perspective.
Everyone in the world is wondering how the 21-year-old polish woman came to dominate women’s tennis so much. This is a consequence of several factors. The secret of Iga Swiatek’s success lies in herself and in her surroundings.
Iga Swiatek has produced a phenomenal season. The Pole won two Grand Slam tournaments this year: Roland Garros and the US Open. She has also claimed five other titles on the WTA Tour and has been leading the rankings for over 24 weeks. From a mathematical point of view, there is no indication that she could lose the lead in the coming months.
The season Iga will surely end as the world No.1. Her point advantage over her opponents is gigantic. The advantage on the court – even greater. Even if Swiatek does not play as well as she can – and this was the case in New York – still win. It is thanks to her winning mentality, similar to Rafa Nadal or Novak Djokovic.
We come back to the first factor that determines the success of a polish tennis player. It’s her character. Swiatek has an amazing passion for playing tennis. She is very ambitious, full of passion.
When I spoke to her four years ago after winning the junior Wimbledon title, she said her goal was to win all four Grand Slam tournaments. Even though she was only 17 at the time, she was very conscious and goal-oriented.
This is also because of her father, Tomasz Swiatek. In the past, he was a rower who represented Poland at the Olympic Games in Seoul. Iga grew up in a sports family. She knew what an athlete’s career mean.
The environment of Iga Swiatek has a great influence on her successes. These achievements would not exist without the psychologist Daria Abramowicz. A polish woman was one of the first to start talking about the role of sports psychology in women’s tennis. She has been cooperating with Abramowicz for three years, and you can see the real effects of their cooperation.
Iga is an example for them how to develop on the mental perspective. Thanks to it, other tennis players (Ons Jabeur or Naomi Osaka) use specialists. This is slowly becoming the norm.
Maciej Ryszczuk, a physiotherapist, also does a great job. He prepares Iga for hard work throughout the season. The season is long because tennis players play practically all year round. They change surfaces, continents and climates. Iga looks very good physically.
Ryszczuk admits that he analyzes the performances of the best tennis players in recent years (for example Serena Williams) and draws conclusions on how to physically prepare a tennis player, where to let go, when to train harder. For this reason, Iga did not play in Madrid this year.
The most important member in Iga’s team is, of course, the coach. Previously, it was Piotr Sierzputowski, today it is Tomasz Wiktorowski. The former prepared polish woman for an adult career and helped to win the first Grand Slam title in Paris. Wiktorowski took Iga to another level. He uses his own experience as a former coach of Agnieszka Radwanska. Iga is also more mature, she is a different tennis player than three years ago.
In the end, you also need to appreciate the tremendous work that the entire tennis player’s managerial team is doing. Thanks to this, Iga does not have to pursue her career, think about many things. She can focus primarily on training and matches.
This is important because there was no such professional team in polish tennis before. Iga does not always know what she will be doing in two days after the tournament. That’s why she has people to plan her calendar and she trusts them.