Three-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek admits she needs to work on lowering her expectations following a mixed start to 2023.
The world No.1 hasn’t played on the Tour since her early exit from the Australian Open where she was knocked out in the fourth round by Elena Rybakina who went on to reach the final. It was only the second time Swiatek has failed to reach the quarter-final stage or better of a Grand Slam out of her past five appearances. Prior to Melbourne Park, she won three out of four matches played at the United Cup with her only loss being to Jessica Pegula.
Reflecting on her recent results on the Tour, the Pole admits she needed to ‘reset’ her game and re-evaluate how she approaches her matches from a mental point of view.
“What I needed was to reset my game a little bit. I knew what I did wrong at the Australian Open and over my whole stay in Australia. I really wanted to focus on getting my expectations lower. (You can’t) play perfectly all the time because last season was so strange that it can actually mess up with your head a little bit,” Swiatek told reporters earlier this week.
“I really wanted to get my both feet on the ground, focus on hard work and what I have to do on court. I was really happy as our practice sessions were intense. I feel like I could really focus on the technical stuff and just improve as a player,” she added.
Swiatek has high standards following her breakthrough in 2022 where she won 37 consecutive matches during the first half of the season. During that year, she topped the rankings for the first time, won eight WTA titles and registered a 15-2 winning record against top-10 opposition.
The sensational performance elevated the 21-year-old to the limelight who was just as surprised as anyone else about her rapid rise in the sport.
“Things like that, they don’t happen often,” she said.
“I thought that maybe in a few years I’m going to be that kind of player who is going to be so consistent to be World No. 1 and I wasn’t expecting it to happen last year.’
“So for sure I was surprised, but honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about that throughout the whole season. I was just doing my job and playing as best as possible, and it happened.”
The next challenge for Swiatek will be this week when she returns to competitive action at the Qatar Open where she is the defending champion. The WTA 500 event has a world-class field with the seven highest-ranked players in the field all being in the top 10.
In her section of the draw, the top seed will begin her campaign against either former Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins or Elise Mertens. Then she could play the formidable Victoria Azarenka or last week’s Abu Dhabi champion Belinda Bencic.
“I’m not really focused on defending the titles because I feel like every year it’s a different story and every tournament is a different story. It just doesn’t make sense for me to think about last year’s tournament and this year’s tournament and think that it’s the same story. A lot can happen in one year,” Swiatek said.
“I really just want to start this tournament as any other player. We all start from the same spot. There are so many matches to win and so many obstacles to overcome that I really want to be focused just on the next step and on the next match,” she added.
From now until the start of April, Swiatek is defending a massive 4500 ranking points.
