Iga Swiatek eager to learn Serena Williams-style ‘pressure and intimidation’, targets career Grand Slam after US Open

Over the last nine months Iga Swiatek has proved herself as undoubtedly the best player on the WTA Tour.

She’s won seven titles this season, including the French Open and US Open, clocked up a record-breaking 37-match winning run, and established a commanding lead at the top of the world rankings after taking the world No. 1 position in her stride following Ashleigh Barty’s shock retirement.

Such dominance has arguably not been witnessed on the WTA Tour since the days of prime Serena Williams, and one of Swiatek’s next challenges is building her aura to impact opponents just as Williams did.

“I feel like it’s not every time that I can make use of it,” she told the WTA.

“This is the thing that Serena really showed how to do. Because she was at the top for a long time and she was using that pressure and intimidation of being at the top of the game. She used it pretty well to make her matches a little bit easier, especially at the beginning.

“I feel like I was able to do that a couple of times, but I want to do it more often. So for sure I’m aware of that and I want to try and use it in the right way.”

She has now won two of the four majors and has ambitions to target the Australian Open and Wimbledon going forward. Swiatek made the semi-finals at the Australian Open earlier this year but is yet to make it past the fourth round at Wimbledon.

“I guess it was always kind of my dream, but still, I’m not going to really focus on it because you can see in tennis that some things happen when you don’t expect them. So I’m just going to learn and focus on the process.

“But for sure I always said it’s the dream. But I still feel like I need more skills on grass to make it a goal.”

Swiatek’s victory in New York was something of a surprise considering her form since seeing her 37-match winning run ended in the third round of Wimbledon.

“Mostly I didn’t feel well tennis-wise on court,” she says.

“I felt like it was hard for me to adjust and get used to the conditions here and these balls with my grip, which is a western grip. It’s harder to close my forehand.

“With the balls that are light and flying away, also in hot temperatures, it’s sometimes hard. From the beginning, I felt it was going to be a real challenge because I also felt that sometimes I don’t have much control in Toronto and Cincinnati.”

Swiatek says the moment things clicked into place in New York was against Jule Niemeier in the fourth round.

The world No. 1 dropped the opening set 6-2 but rebounded well and finished with her 19th bagel of the season.

“I think at the end of the match I realised that I can play a little bit slower and have more control. And even though it’s a fast surface, not to expect every shot to be a winner or be really aggressive with every shot. I found that balance a little bit.

“The next match I could choose between playing that safer style and choosing to be more aggressive in important moments. It was much much easier to be aggressive when the previous points were just solid and good. I had that confidence and I didn’t doubt myself that much.

“At the end, I had both of these things so I think that’s why I won.”

Swiatek’s incredible success this season means she is already assured of a place at the WTA Finals in Texas.

She is scheduled to play a WTA 500 in Ostrava, Czech Republic starting on October 3 and also plans to work on “technical stuff” for the rest of the year.

“I’m happy that I don’t have to be in the Race because I’m pretty safe with the points that I have. It’s a totally different situation than last year.

“So for sure I want to use that time to work on some technical stuff, especially because we’re going to have a couple of weeks of just practising.

“I think it’s going to be a nice time for me to settle with all the things that happened this season and get this solid work. I’ve been practising a lot right now but it was still in between tournaments. It’s not like you can do so much like in a mini-pre-season period. So I’m for sure going to use that time.”

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