Iga Swiatek explained how she used her time after the Olympic games to prepare for the North American hardcourt swing.
After a long and gruelling summer on clay and grass, the World number one took a breather after representing her country of Poland at the 2024 Olympics.
Despite the overwhelming favourite to claim the gold medal, Swiatek suffered a shock defeat to China’s Qinwen Zheng in the semi-finals.
She did leave with a bronze medal after beating Anna Schmiedlová but with the Olympics now in the rearview mirror, the four-time Grand Slam winner is preparing to go back on the hard courts.
What did Iga Swiatek do to prepare for the Cincinnati and US Open events?
There was plenty of pressure and expectation on Iga Swiatek’s shoulders over the summer. Given her dominance on clay, the World number one was expected to win both the French Open and Olympics.
But with these tournaments along with Wimbledon now behind her, Swiatek is going to commence the North American hard court swing at the Cincinnati Open before heading to the US Open.
Ahead of the WTA 1000 event, the four-time Grand Slam champion told reporters that she took a much needed break to recharge her batteries ahead of her road to Flushing Meadows.
“I literally felt after the Olympics that I need to kind of reset and also just focus on getting my technique back together and just grinding on court, here is the perfect place to do it,” Swiatek said.
“It feels a little bit less crazy, but on the other hand, even before the tournament, there are many people and a lot of fans. So you still feel that it’s an important tournament anyway.”
What did Iga Swiatek say about her Olympics experience?
Swiatek headed to Paris to compete in her second Olympic Games, with the added incentive of the tennis being played on the hallowed clay at Roland Garros.
After cruising through the opening rounds, Swiatek faced Zheng in the semi-finals. The Chinese player produced one of her best performances of the season to end Swiatek’s hopes of winning gold.
Desire missing out on becoming champion, Swiatek was pleased to leave the Olympics with a medal.
“It was pretty stressful and it wasn’t easy. But I’m happy that I could leave Paris with a medal and with a lot of knowledge about myself,” she said.
“The most important thing for me was to learn from this experience. I was proud of myself and I was happy that I could deal with all this pressure and still get a medal. It wasn’t like a normal tournament, for sure.”
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