Iga Swiatek has said that a mixture of balance and variety of shot is the key to successful sliding on clay after her opening round win at Roland Garros.
The four-time champion was flawless in her win over 17 year-old Emerson Jones as Swiatek won 6-2 6-1.
It was a flawless performance for Swiatek over the young Australian who was playing her first Roland Garros main draw.
After the match Swiatek retold her Roland Garros debut and what it was like for her back in 2019, “Oh, honestly, until I won, there weren’t many changes, because in 2020, it’s not like I came to the tournament knowing that I’m going to win, you know. I feel like in 2019 I already played junior tournament, so I already kind of knew the vibe of the whole event, but obviously it’s different playing at a pro level,” Swiatek explained in her post-match press conference.
“I was just trying to do the best result possible with the game that I had. But next year, you know, maybe the difference was that, I don’t know, every match I felt like I’m playing better and better, and I really, you know, felt like I’m, like my game is fitting these courts, and I don’t know, I just, match by match, I thought maybe I can go one more. I had many more belief, you know.
“But in 2019 I also played quite good. I remember I was a bit injured, but then with Simona, obviously she beat me pretty hard. It was heartbreaking, but it was a lesson that I had to learn. She was playing her best game back then. For sure, without that loss, I wouldn’t play much better next year, you know. That’s the story.”
Swiatek has learned from her lessons and is now a superior clay court player as she looks for her fifth title in Paris.
One of the keys to Swiatek’s clay court success is sliding and the Pole spoke about what the art to sliding is and how it can be a strength on clay, “I guess it’s just a matter of, like, stopping in the right moment, and also, like, transferring the energy from your moving to the ball, because you don’t want to, like, stop and then hit,” Swiatek analysed.
“You want to do it, like, smoothly in the same movement, kind of. Yeah, but I guess also you need to keep your balance in the right position, don’t lean back, don’t lean forward. I guess many things have to come together to have a good slide, but we don’t think about it, you know. I don’t know.
“Maybe how you recover from these positions and what kind of shots you can play when you’re sliding. You know, if you still have control over the ball or is it more that you’re sliding because you’re in such defense that you have no other option. So I guess just a variety of the shots you can have while sliding.”
As well as being excited for Roland Garros silverware, Swiatek is excited to see the new Rafa Nadal documentary on Netflix.
The Pole admitted she will need some tissues to watch and is gutted that she missed the Premiere of the event, “Yeah. Honestly, it’s a hard topic for us, because Francis told us in Madrid, Hey, there is this Rafa documentary premier, and whole team got ready the night before with outfits and everything. And he was, like, It’s on 20th or — I don’t know,” Swiatek said.
“But it was a few days ago, the premier? Francis told us it was a month ago in Madrid. And everybody got ready, and then he said, Oh, I messed up the dates. I was so sad. Yeah, I’m going to watch it straightaway, unless I play the next day, because I will cry. Yeah, but I might cry on all of them. But I would love to be on the premier, as well, but I couldn’t because of, yeah, a planning mistake.”
Swiatek will return to on-court matters on Wednesday when she faces Sara Bejlek in the second round.
