MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 6, 2023

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

A. SABALENKA/I. Swiatek

6-3, 3-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: It was a great battle out there tonight, a great final. What made Aryna such a tough opponent today?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, we just played on a good level, but she was better today. It's hard for me to analyze right now, so you know, I don't know right now, honestly. It's hard to answer that question, because it was tight.

Sometimes it was about, you know, a few shots that I could play a little bit better. She played some shots in that were, you know, risky. Maybe sometimes I could be more proactive, but honestly, I think we both played good. I don't have any like big regrets.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Bearing in mind the success you have had pretty much everywhere else on clay, and you have played Aryna three times and you have won all three before today, how much of the conditions played a part today?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly, I don't think we should talk about that, because she played a really good match, you know, so I don't want to blame my loss to conditions or something else.

Sometimes it's tougher; sometimes it's easier. That's why we have variety in tennis, and that's why sometimes players are playing better on some surfaces and some on different.

Yeah, but it doesn't really matter because she won, and I just respect that and I don't want to kind of take it from Aryna. Yeah.

Q. Tonight we have a lot of public. Did you feel loved in this court today? And apart, the way you return, Aryna also, but I think you have broken the statistics and they should put return winners. It was amazing.

IGA SWIATEK: Thank you. I felt the love the whole week. I'm pretty happy that people are watching. You know, I think with our level we are getting better and better. So there are more exciting matches.

Yeah, I felt love, for sure.

Q. A tough one today, but what do you take out of your two weeks here in Madrid into Rome?

IGA SWIATEK: Hmm. I can answer like what I take overall, but I don't think taking anything to Rome is that important, because I'm gonna treat it as totally different story and different tournament.

But overall, you know, just the experience of playing here and at different times and being able to also recover from these late matches, that's something that's going to give me confidence that I can manage anything. And just playing well consistently, it's something to be proud of.

Q. Bad luck. You have obviously not lost a lot this year, but a few of your losses have been kind of in straight sets. Are you satisfied with just your fight and the way you were down in the second set, breakpoints, you came back, down 3-Love?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly it's like media and you guys are kind of focusing on that, but I know why I lost these matches in two sets. You know, I know what I can improve, and it doesn't really matter for me if I lose two or three sets.

For sure, if it's more tight you know that you had some maybe more chances or whatever, but I'm always fighting, and sometimes, you know, I can play worse some day and lose in two sets. My opponent can play perfect tennis. It's not like we have influence on everything.

But I'm for sure taking care of the stuff that I have influence on. If I'm able to play better, I'm gonna do that on court. Yeah, every day is different, but for sure I'm happy with how I recovered after the first set today and I came back.

Q. You said on court that you will hopefully play another final against her this year. Do you have any tournament in your mind?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I'd love to play the final of every tournament (smiling). Well, I think, you know, against Aryna with her game and both of us being so consistent, it's gonna happen anyway. I don't know what tournament (smiling).

Like doesn't matter for me. I'm treating every match, you know, with the same amount of importance and focus, so it doesn't matter what tournament.

Q. It's a rare occurrence for No. 1 and No. 2 to reach a final on the WTA Tour. Obviously you and Aryna have now done it twice. Curious, from your perspective, why is that a statistic that's rare? How hard is it to maintain your positions at the top of the game and to navigate these draws to be there on championship day?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly, I think Daria could answer it better, but for me, of course it's tough. Like people are saying it's tough to get to top, but staying at the top is even tougher.

I don't know. I haven't lived enough to know if that's like true or not, but getting to the top, I felt like it would be harder anyway, and staying at the top is hard, but I think I'm doing a good job anyway.

I don't know. It's just a matter of kind of not thinking about it that you're gonna stay here, but it's more like reaching to other stuff that can motivate you and that you can do better no matter what position you're in.

I think, you know, that was the change for me in terms of how I felt at the beginning of the season with the pressure of being World No. 1 and how I feel right now. I don't know if other players are doing it differently or they had, the ones that stayed on top for a longer time, they had different like paths or reasons that they stayed there.

But for sure, I don't know, me and Aryna, I feel like we just, we're just hard workers. I know that she's super professional as well in terms of, you know, fitness and other stuff, and we're kind of progressing no matter if we're on top or not, so I think that's why we are kind of solid.

Q. It felt as though from the beginning of the second set you were much closer on the return games compared to, say, the first set. It seemed like you were getting a read on her serve, at least from where I was sitting. As a result, do you think if the longer the match was going on, the more chances you had, especially on Aryna's serve?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I can only say from my side that I was kind of more focused and more like kind of fearless, you know, and I wanted to keep that mentality. For sure, you know, when I loosened up a little bit, it got better.

But yeah, as I said, like every day is different. For sure I could be more like proactive in the first set, but I also, you know, haven't played here with anybody yet who is playing that fast and with such a high intensity, so I didn't really know where the border is in terms of like speeding up.

In second set I saw what I could do and I tried to keep that in third. Honestly, I have to watch and see what happened in those like two games when I got broken in third.

I think it was really tight, and it was a matter of kind of few centimeters, you know, and sometimes, you know, sometimes it's in; sometimes it's out. But I did my best to keep the intensity and still keep the control here.

So maybe next year I'm gonna know better if I can do even more or not, but for sure I did 100% of what I could, so no regrets.