INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 6, 2025

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Iga, welcome back to Rome. How are you feeling ahead of the tournament start?

IGA SWIATEK: Thank you. Good. I had couple of days off, so I practiced. So I feel good.

Q. Iga, this year you've reached the quarterfinal or better of every tournament. I think you've only played at 1000 level. Obviously I know your standards are very high and you want to be winning most of them. Are you able to reflect on your consistency and the high general level you have even when things aren't going perfectly?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, for sure I'm happy with the consistency. This is something that I always want. There's no tournament where I go in and I'm like not prepared. Obviously, yeah, there have been some where I lost matches in quarters or semis, but I feel like still it's a good result on court.

I might be harsh on myself. Later on when I reflect and I have time to just see this first part of the season from a different perspective, I'm for sure proud of the consistency. Still I feel like I'm the most kind of consistent as I was previous years.

But for sure I want to also win some tournaments. That's also the goal.

Q. Does your training or mental preparation vary in any way for this clay court season, given you're winning a lot of matches, but it's different to other years where you pretty much won every match you played?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, the truth is every year the change is a little bit different. You have to also adjust to that. It's not like this process of mental training...

I mean, the same with tennis. One month you don't feel good with your forehand, the other with your backhand. It's not like you can always plan it straightaway that this process is going to look like that, this process is going to look a little bit different. You need to just kind of follow with how you feel.

I would say it's different, the changes are different. In 2023 I remember I had a lot of, like, anxiety on first part of the season. In 2024 I was kind of only looking at the Olympics. The tournaments before, I was just playing them, but Olympics were always in the back of my head.

This year I feel like I am struggling a bit more with my perfectionism. I want to for sure focus on, like, being disciplined on the court and making right choices, not the choices that sometimes pop out in my head, but being really solid. Yeah, I think I can do that. This is my main focus now.

Q. As you did reflect on the end of Madrid, was that just a bad day on the court for you, a buildup of the personal stuff? I'm sorry about your grandfather. What was going on there? How are you able to sort of move on? Does it make you think at all about the rest of the season and what you might need in order to last both mentally and physically?

IGA SWIATEK: I think on this match, it was a mix. I also played, like, three-set matches. I didn't have a proper rest after Stuttgart. During the tournament in Madrid, I felt like every day basically I just really had a normal day off without any traveling or without having some obligations, yeah, without this personal stuff.

For sure I feel like after Madrid I could reset a little bit better than after Stuttgart. Yeah, the match with Coco for sure wasn't good. I had trouble focusing. I wasn't moving well. I think everything kind of built up at one moment. That's why the score was like that.

It's just like one day. You can't judge everything by it. I'm continuing the work that I've been doing. I trust the process. We'll see on the next one.

Q. Now you've been working would Wim Fissette for half a year, what are the greatest contributions to your game?

IGA SWIATEK: I feel like I worked on some technical stuff on my serve and my forehand. I know that I haven't been always able to implement that on the match court, which is not perfect. This is tennis. I don't have, like, three months to change some technical thing, then your body just remembers it. It would be much easier if we had a system like that.

My pre-season was short. I'm kind of catching up in between tournaments to improve the technical things. Yeah, I feel like some things have been better because of Wim, like my serve.

I feel like I also, yeah, wasn't so good at implementing it all the time. Sometimes I changed the way I play in a way I shouldn't have done, and it's completely kind of on me. Sometimes I make little bit wrong decisions. I think it's because of me wanting to, I don't know, play faster or finish the rally faster instead of being solid and building it. That's why I was talking at the beginning about the discipline.

Yeah, I think it's all pretty connected. But I'm happy with the work I'm doing with Wim. So I'll just continue. I'll also try to be more, yeah, disciplined and make some nice better choices on court.

Q. I'd like to ask you a question about sleep. I know this is something that is very difficult for tennis players with jet lag and the different times of matches. Are there any techniques that you use to optimize sleep? Have you ever consulted any sleep experts?

IGA SWIATEK: No, I haven't consulted. I didn't feel the need to yet. I also have a doctor that is kind of taking care of me overall. Even though he's not a sleep expert, he knows how to manage things like that. I have a good team that is taking care of me.

I would say it's not that bad for people who are have Europe, I'd say. It's a little bit easier. We go to Australia. Obviously the jet lag is pretty big there, but you have time to adjust to it. Then we come back going from east to west, so it's a bit easier.

Yeah, like coming back in April from States to Europe is tricky, but also it's only a training period.

I would say going to China is the most difficult part. It's only in October, so I kind of don't think about that. This is the only part of the season where the sleep can be a little bit, like, on and off for me.

But I have, yeah, my routines. I know how to deal with that. Everybody knows that I'm taking melatonin, so yeah.

Q. I'm not sure if it's correct, but I read are you considering to skip Wimbledon?

IGA SWIATEK: Who said that?

Q. I just read that on social media, so I wanted to clarify.

IGA SWIATEK: Shouldn't believe this stuff.

Q. It's off the charts?

IGA SWIATEK: Yes.

Q. I already saw a comment of Brad Gilbert slightly criticizing that.

IGA SWIATEK: During past few days I saw million comments that were not true.

Q. How do you handle it?

IGA SWIATEK: I don't get it. There are so many theories right now I would say especially in Polish media about me that are not true. I think, I don't know, you guys like to make some articles that will attract people. I get it. It's part of the job.

But yeah, for sure I'm not going to skip Wimbledon. I really want to learn how to play on grass better. Every year is another opportunity. I will play Wimbledon, for sure, unless I get injured.

Q. The Vatican, they're going to begin the process of electing a new Pope. Is it something you're following? Are you curious about what's going on since you're here in Rome? Do you think of going to St. Peter's Square to see if you see the white smoke?

IGA SWIATEK: I would love to do that. I think it's going to be super crowded. I think the whole Rome is going to be following.

Yeah, I would love to, like, do it just to have the experience. But I'll see logistically how it's going to look like. Also we don't know when it's going to happen, right? Might be couple months. So we'll see (smiling).

Q. You said earlier that you've been struggling with your perfectionism. Obviously that's a big part of your success. How do you take the best out of it without letting it overwhelm you?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, I have love-and-hate relationship with my perfectionism. Yeah, like coming on these clay court tournaments, I just kind of try to reflect on how I see my game and how I also saw previous seasons.

The thing is that I only remember the good stuff from last years because I was winning titles and everything. My head kind of remembers the good stuff. Sometimes I'm on court, I feel like I'm going to play this loopy forehand there, my great backhand there. I'm making decisions that are not really good at the moment because I just remember how it felt previous tournaments or previous years. I kind of assume it's going to go in, and then I make mistakes. It's not the same, I'm confused.

Yeah, as I said, that's why every tournament and every year is different. There's no reason to compare because we are, like, at different places in our lives, as well.

That's why I'm happy that I have my team around me to also help me to manage this stuff. Without them, for sure it wouldn't be so easy.

But still I feel like with the way sometimes I've been playing, I feel like I'm doing good results. I'm close to doing a little bit more. I just need to just push a little bit more and not let my thoughts go around like this.

Q. (No microphone.)

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, yeah. I mean, because I tend to just remember the good ones. Also it's good to remember that it wasn't so perfect last year, so I don't compare all the time.

Yeah, because when you just go out on court and you constantly hope that you're going to play better than what you actually maybe can that day, you're going to be disappointed anyway.

I'm working on that, and we'll see how it's going to end.