AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2022

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/H. Dart

6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Talk us through the match. Seemed like a strong start for you for Melbourne.

IGA SWIATEK: Yes, for sure. I mean, you could see that first few games were pretty tricky for me. With the sun I know I got broken in my second service game.

I'm pretty happy that I was patient, I found the rhythm throughout the match. That's pretty positive.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Having a bit of new eyes on things with the new coach, how is that shaping a different way of seeing this?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, the interesting thing is that he didn't change a lot at the beginning because he was good to continue the process that I've had. Too many changes would be really confusing.

We're focusing on different stuff. We're working on my strengths, which is great, because it's going to give me confidence. I'm going to be able to be more, like, proactive on court. We were working on some attack formations and offensive game.

But we also didn't have time to work on everything that we wanted to because there is a lot to improve in terms of my volleys and maybe slice.

Still I can play it, for sure. But he sees some stuff that it's pretty easy to change, but we just didn't have time for that. Yeah, there's a lot to do.

I'm pretty happy that we are focusing on my strengths and on positive stuff.

Q. Does focusing on strengths simplify things?

IGA SWIATEK: Yes. That's also good because I think last season I tend to, like, overanalyze the situations on court. It's tennis, it's a game. You're just hitting the ball and you should hit it as fast as possible, not where the opponent is. Sometimes it's easier than I was thinking.

Being proactive, just going forward, I don't have to make, like, choices on how I'm going to behave during the point, if I'm going to go back, forward. I'm just always there. That's easier for sure.

Q. How much of playing Grand Slam tennis still feels new to you?

IGA SWIATEK: I am familiar with it because I think junior Grand Slams also gave me a lot. It's good that I played them. It was a great start for me.

I mean, it's third year that I'm playing Grand Slams on tour. Third? No, fourth. It's the third year. It's not a lot if you look at Sam Stosur, for example.

For me, I mean, I've learned a lot. I've always had many matches here. It's not like I've been losing in the first round. Yeah, there is some experience that I have already.

Q. Stosur played today, she won.

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, that's great.

Q. She has some Polish roots somewhere.

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah. We are practicing actually pretty often. Last practice we played a doubles game and I was pretty happy that I won against her volleys. I think I won because she didn't really know the rules of that game.

I mean, Sam is great. You can see that she's still having fun, which is amazing after so many years. She's really inspiring.

Q. What is your favorite things you've watched or listened to or read recently?

IGA SWIATEK: I was in The Go!! Show after Indian Wells. That was really cool. What did I watch? C'mon. I always forget when people ask me these questions.

I'm still watching all the Marvel stuff that is coming out. I was watching Spiderman, the newest one, which was pretty crazy. I was shocked at the end. Eternals. Also Ted Lasso is cool, but it's not something I was crazy about. It was nice, yeah.

Q. When you're getting to know a coach for the first time, a coach is getting to know you, what are some of the key things you think in order for somebody to be able to work well with you, these are things they have to understand about you?

IGA SWIATEK: Like specifically about me or...

Q. For you personally. I don't know, you don't like getting too much information at once.

IGA SWIATEK: For sure the fact that I don't always like to talk or think about tennis. Sometimes when I'm on tour, I just need to go to work for two hours and then cut it off. That's pretty cool that he understands that. He's open for us to go -- sorry. He's cool with the ideas that we have, like going to the beach or going to the cinema. It's pretty hard sometimes to put that in the schedule. He's helping with that, so that's cool.

I don't know. I mean, I think it's pretty basic. Also it was really important for me to have good relationships between the people in my team. I wanted him to have good cooperation with (indiscernible) because they need to have a great contact in terms of my practices. Also understand what Daria is doing because there's not many sports psychologists who are traveling.

Just be open-minded and maybe be sometimes patient because I like to discuss a lot. I'm not that kind of person who just listens and does stuff. I am always having my opinion. I like to say it, so... I'm pretty happy that he understands that.

Q. You were quite young when you won the French Open. It was your first title on tour. At that point in your career what do you think was the key for you to then move forward and maybe not feel overwhelmed by the attention, expectations that other people start having for you?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I'm not going to say that I wasn't overwhelmed because I was, for sure. But having good people around me, like trusting them that they're going to lead me and guide me in a good way, that was really helpful.

I mean, I think it went pretty smooth. I don't want to say forgetting but just turning these experiences to a positive thing and learning from it. I just needed, I don't know, five days maybe after losing second round in that tournament prior to Australian Open last year. During these five days I was being like, Hey, it's not working out. I'm thinking about French Open. I'm having huge expectations. I didn't know if I'm going to get through this.

When the Grand Slam started and when I played on Australian Open, I came back to normal. So it went pretty smooth for me.