Every Swiatek first he conquered and then consolidated the leadership of the WTA world ranking thanks to his 8 titles this year divided into two Slams, the Roland Garros and the Us Open, four WTA 1000 and two 500, the last one almost two weeks ago in San Diego.
Now there is the last objective to close in the best possible way: the WTA finals. The Polish champion gave a very interesting interview where she took stock of the situation adding an important detail: that she would like to face Ashley Barty.
She said: «After Roland Garros, I felt that I had to keep up the pace in the second half of the season. I felt that I had to play at least at the same level. The expectations have also increased from the outside, in the eyes of the crowd Con the help of my team, I won the US Open because I lowered my expectations and this relieved the pressure.
We did a great job on the US tour. In New York I played much more easily, not caring what anyone else thought. During the US Open I realized that I could still win games even if I didn’t control my game 100%.» About the final, he said: «I rested for two days in Florida and on Monday we flew to Texas.
I recovered a bit, at least to be able to play the final. After that, I will need a longer rest period. Today it takes me longer to recover. After the Australian Open, I felt completely rested after two of the five days away from the court.
I felt fresh and ready. This was not the case after the US Open, where I had cramps that prevented me from sleeping the night after winning the tournament. I made this decision to make sure I can play next season healthy and injury-free.
This year I played 72 games, so I have to take care of myself. Playing BJKC would mean another change of time zone, a change of weather, from hot to cold, a change of surface, of rhythm, of routine.»
Between closed programs and Barty’s regret
On the decidedly closed program: «This year, and also last year, it has been seen that many players have paid the price for trying to keep such a tight schedule and compete in both tournaments.
I hope that the WTA and ITF will enhance their collaboration in terms of scheduling and location of both tournaments next year. This degrades the level of the show. I understand that it must be difficult to choose between various venues, cities and which fans to please, but I still think that the players and therefore the fans must have the highest priority.»
On a hypothetical duel against Barty «I would love to play Ash one day. It would be great, because when I started she was the leader and she was in great shape, and I always had a lot of respect for her style. It’s a shame I didn’t we’ve done it.» She rackets crossed and I couldn’t show my best game against her.»
