Iga Swiatek admits she is ready to work with the pressure of the world number one being on the line after her opening round win at Roland Garros.
There may have been plenty of upsets so far in Paris but the world number one ensured that she is not one of them after a 6-4 6-0 win over Cristina Bucsa.
After a tricky opening set, Swiatek eventually raced through the second set to clinch a place in the second round.
In her post-match press conference Swiatek admitted she was tense at the start of the match but is pleased to come away with the victory, “Well, for sure at the beginning it was tricky, but I’m pretty happy that I managed to play better and better,” Swiatek said.
“Well, I just felt more tense, for sure, but I managed to kind of turn that around and not think about, you know, all the stuff that is usually kind of bothering when you play a first match on some tournament, you know.”
Swiatek being tense or stressed isn’t anything new as the Pole will look to successfully defend her title in Paris.
However the Pole knows that if she doesn’t manage to win the title at Roland Garros then she could lose her world number one ranking.
Speaking about the possibility, Swiatek admitted that she feels pressure about it but will try to adapt as much as possible as the tournament goes on, “Of course I feel pressure. I think we all feel pressure,” Swiatek added.
“Like there are players who are in some positions that are a little bit harder for them or easier, but yeah, I feel pressure. I would be lying if I said I don’t.
“But I’m trying to kind of work with it and just play my game no matter, you know, all the circumstances and the expectations from the outside. It’s not easy, but basically I think it’s like the most important thing in tennis right now to cope with that properly, and I already know how to do that, so I have like all hopes that I’m gonna continue doing that.”
As everyone knows, Swiatek is one of the best on the tour at adapting and playing under pressure so the world number one will be relatively calm about the next two weeks.
Next up for the Pole at Roland Garros is Claire Liu with their last meeting coming at Indian Wells where Swiatek only dropped one game.
