THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 29, 2025

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Iga, how a do you feel your grass court season has gone so far?

IGA SWIATEK: For sure probably so far it's the best one that I've had. I had really great time in Bad Homburg and enjoyed it. Yeah, also having more time to practice before on grass really helped. I feel that I have a little bit more skills.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You played your first grass court final yesterday in Bad Homburg against Pegula. How do you feel your level is compared to previous years?

IGA SWIATEK: I think better. Just having the experience of playing few matches before, the same as in 2023, yeah, it gives you more confidence. I don't know. You just have to get through some situations on the court, and gives you the extra experience and kind of the momentum to go forward.

I'm really happy I had opportunity to play there. I played the top players, so yeah, it gives a lot.

Q. Beating Jasmine in the semifinals, what did that do for your confidence on grass? That was a nice win.

IGA SWIATEK: Thanks.

Yeah, it was for sure something that I wasn't expecting. It gave me a lot of confidence. Obviously it's tennis, so every day is different, but I felt like I'm playing great. I really pushed Jasmine the way I wanted to. So it was great, yeah.

Q. What's feeling better on grass that used to be difficult for you in years past? Movement, low-bouncing balls, or whatever it may be that feels better?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, it's not like a huge change. It's not like 180 degrees change. I wouldn't say like now suddenly everything is, like, perfect, 'cause it's still a difficult surface. It's still tricky.

Just having more years of experience, 'cause every year it feels like it's a little bit easier to get used to the surface, and then you have more time to just develop as a player and having more days. I didn't stay home. I went to Mallorca to practice. Just more time, like give me opportunity to, yeah, work on some movement and stepping to the ball a little bit differently than on clay. It helped.

But overall it also depends on the confidence you have at the moment, you know? You really have to trust your shots on grass. You can't really pull back. Any shot that will give your opponent more time to go in is probably the shot that will make you lose the rally.

I just went for it in Bad Homburg, and it really worked. I'll continue that.

Q. You've spoken before quite extensively about mental health. I'm wondering what your thoughts are about the biggest challenges to players on the tour in terms of mental health? What do you think the tour should do to help players?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, that's a difficult topic because obviously everybody has different issues or see problems in different things.

But for me, I think the scheduling is super intense. It's too intense. There's no point for us to play, like, over 20 tournaments in a year. Sometimes we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we're going to get a zero in the ranking.

I think these kind of obligations and the rules about mandatory tournaments just put pressure on us. For me the scheduling is pretty intense. I think people would still watch tennis, maybe even more, if we played less tournaments, but the quality, for example, would be better or we would be more consistent because of that.

So yeah, this is for sure challenging. But tennis is a difficult sport overall. Like, every week you start kind of from the beginning. Yeah, like every week can tell you if you're a great player or you sucked this week, you know (smiling)?

You always have to have in the back of your mind that tennis is not your whole life. You've got to give some perspective and also be proud of sometimes even when you don't win, because only one person out of the whole tournament wins.

Q. Winning Roland Garros is obviously a huge high and a wonderful thing to achieve every time that you've done so. I know a lot comes with that in the aftermath. There's a huge high, a lot of obligations, other things you need to do as a champion. I just wonder this year, without having had that experience, do you feel in any way fresher coming into Wimbledon than maybe you did in the past?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, no. I mean, honestly the obligations are basically after the match and day after. You just need to do a photo shoot, so I wouldn't say it's super tiring for someone who already won some tournaments and have had the experience.

So I wouldn't say that's changing anything, but for sure I had two more days to practice on grass.

Q. I was wondering if you could tell us, what do you recall of the 17-year-old Iga who won the Wimbledon girls title here?

IGA SWIATEK: It feels like it was in a different lifetime, you know? It was probably the highlight of my career back then. I remember winning. It felt pretty surreal.

But on the other hand, I came back home, and nothing really changed because I still had junior Wimbledon, that's the real pro one.

I remember I thought may life is going to be, like, perfect now. I was a bit disappointed. It was still the same, and I still had to get back to work. I played some ITF tournaments afterwards, and it was more like reminder I'm still not there yet. The work kind of starts now.

But for sure it gave me... I remember having a lot of just hope and just the feeling that maybe if it was possible now, it's going to be also possible in the future at the pro level.

Q. Back at the French Open, I don't know if you talked about this, but before the tournament you practiced with Tabilo? What was that like? He said it was kind of surreal. He really wanted to hit with you.

IGA SWIATEK: He said it's surreal (smiling)?

Q. Yes.

IGA SWIATEK: I'm happy that he says that. I don't know, maybe it was my forehand topspin (laughter).

Yeah, he really wanted to practice. His coach asked us couple times already. It was hard for me to schedule it, because obviously for me it's a practice where I need to give 300%. I can't play like 50%, because he's not going to get anything out of it.

It was really intense for me. I don't think for him, but he says it was (smiling). Yeah, it was nice to play with a guy because, I don't know, the tennis that they play is just different, like more patient.

With his game style, as well. We played some rallies. He's a lefty, so I also had trouble with that. I had to adjust to the different pace and different tactics that guys have.

I really enjoyed it. Hopefully it's going to be possible to do it again. But obviously, like, it's not that kind of practice I would do in the middle of matches, like on a day off, because it was super intense. I'm glad I had a day off after.

Q. You're playing mixed doubles with Casper. What will that be like for you? You played mixed doubles against him. What was that like in United Cup? It seemed like you enjoyed it.

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, I also love watching him. I had opportunity to, like, watch just next to the court. I said that I think two weeks ago that if I would be a guy, I would play a forehand the same way as he does. I don't know, it's just beautiful.

It's going to be really a pleasure to play with him. Hopefully we're going to go far, but it's mixed doubles. It's not that we're going to have time to practice it before. I'll just focus on having fun and enjoying the different format.

Q. What have the last 24 hours been like for you when you got to London, and how you have you managed the quick turnaround?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, for sure it's something that doesn't happen often, because I usually play this tournament that gives me a week of time off before a slam to just practice here on-site and everything. Yeah, on grass it's not possible for me.

So, yeah, I arrived yesterday at 9 p.m. I'm staying close. It hasn't been, like, hectic. I play on Tuesday, so today is my day off. I'm not practicing at all. It's all pretty chill. Just happy to do my media on my day off (laughter).