Iga Swiatek has revealed the key advice given to her by Roger Federer about being world number one after reaching the second week at the US Open.
Swiatek was in no mood to hang about as she demolished her good friend Kaja Juvan 6-0 6-1 to reach the last 16 in New York.
The Pole converted five of her six break points as she hit 21 winners in the 50 minute demolition job.
After the match Swiatek spoke about how it was playing her best friend tour and was pleased with her dominant performance, “No, I wasn’t laughing for sure. For sure it wasn’t an easy match for her. Emotionally as well it’s not easy to, like, play with such a score,” Swiatek said in her press conference.
“But I really just wanted to focus on myself and I think also because I knew that it’s going to be a little bit harder for me to focus because she’s my best friend, I was actually more focused than usual.
“I’m happy that I could do that and I was like fully professional. Usually on a match when something like that happens, I don’t really look and I did the same this time as well.”
It was an incredible display of professionalism from Swiatek as she searches for a fifth Grand Slam title in New York.
Swiatek will also be hoping to keep her world number one ranking by defending her US Open title this week.
Last week Swiatek was at an event and met Roger Federer who gave her some advice about how to embrace being world number one, “Well, honestly, I feel like he embraced everything. When he was on tour it seems like from his perspective it was, like, mainly fun. I also heard from other
people that even, like, 30 minutes before a final he could chat and be relaxed,” Swiatek spoke about her chat with Federer.
“He’s that kind of guy. I think there is something we can learn from that. But for sure I’m a little bit different person. I need to really stay in the zone and bubble and be focused. So for sure it was nice to hear about the other perspective.
“You know, it’s tough to, like for him also to give advice in such a short talk, you know, especially when we don’t see each other every day on tour, because when he finished I just started.
“But I’m really happy that I had the opportunity to talk to him a little bit more and just see how he approaches some stuff, you know. For sure he was pretty open to tell me that.”
That advice from one of the greatest players of all time will only benefit Swiatek’s development as she looks to dominate the women’s tour for years to come.
However before thinking about the long-term, Swiatek has to think about the short-term and her next match which is against Jelena Ostapenko.
Ahead of the clash Swiatek spoke about her approach when facing such a powerful player like Ostapenko, “Well, in terms of the confidence, I always
felt like I still need to kind of work on some technical and tennis skills to build up my confidence,” Swiatek analysed.
“You know, I learned a lot during these past two years how to play on faster hard courts and how to play against heavy hitters. With Jelena, it’s a little bit like one day she can play a perfect match and just put everything in even though she’s really risking, and the other day can be different.
“You never know what to expect. But I kind of accept that, you know, all these players they are going to play the best tennis against me. I felt that couple times already.
“It’s not easy against her. We played a really tight match. two years ago in Dubai. For sure I’m getting close.”
Heading into Sunday’s meeting, Ostapenko leads the head-to-head 3-0.
