Iga Swiatek does not think she was panicking in the matches she lost in early 2023 but did admit that handling the pressure at the Australian Open was something very tough.
Swiatek, a three-time Grand Slam champion, hasn't been bad at the start of the 2023 season but she hasn't been great either.
After suffering a surprise Australian Open round-of-16 loss to Elena Rybakina, Swiatek was also upset by the Kazakh in the Indian Wells semifinal.
Swiatek also had a surprise defeat in the Dubai final against Barbora Krejcikova.
In all of the three mentioned defeats, Swiatek was beaten in straight sets.
So far in 2023, Swiatek has just one title - the Pole made it all the way in Doha.
Swiatek asked if she has been panicking a little too fast in early 2023"Well, no, I wouldn't say so. You know, I have been talking about, you know, what happened in Australia, all the pressure that I faced. So for sure it wasn't easy back there. But I would say, you know, I lost against pretty solid players, you know, Barbora, Elena, and I know they can play good tennis. For sure, you know, I want to not lose, not play tight matches because I want to win easy, but for sure when it comes to -- the only thing I can do, it's kind of there for the future and think what I have to change. I wouldn't say it has something to do with mentality or anything. It's just how these matches were played, you know, and that's fine, but I'm not really coming back to that. As you see, I didn't even know that I didn't play a three-set match, so I don't really care," Swiatek said, per Sportskeeda.
This week, Swiatek is defending her Stuttgart title.
In Stuttgart, Swiatek is the top-seeded player.
After a first-round bye, Swiatek is set to play Qinwen Zheng in the Stuttgart round-of-16.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/GBn7Z86
Tennis