QATAR TOTAL ENERGIES OPEN

February 8, 2026

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Iga, welcome back to Doha. Just your thoughts on being back.

IGA SWIATEK: I'm really happy to be here. I love this place. I have really great memories.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Obviously a week and a half in between Melbourne and now. What did you focus on in that gap and did you take any time for yourself leading into the tournament?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, for sure. Every time I take a couple days off. It's really important for the process. Overall, I just focused on, I just enjoy the conditions because it's much much slower here. I'm also working a bit on my serve and my forehand, and the footwork also. You can't really wait for the ball to come to you there.

Q. Was it easier for you this time to get over Australia, the Australian Open than the last time?

IGA SWIATEK: I wouldn't say, I mean, yes, because for sure losing a match from a match point up against Madi wasn't the easiest. I also didn't have experience like that before.

But both cases I lost against the winner, so I guess I did all I could that day. No regrets. I wish obviously the result was different, but these girls also played good. I got to move on and focus on the next tournament.

Q. I saw that your name was the answer on a Polish game show.

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah. No, it was funny because there was like a big discussion on the internet. Because it's like kind of who answered the most of the times your name or other athlete's name. So I was surprised that I was first and Robert was second. This was funny, because for me he's still like a legend. But it's a funny game show, so we just wanted to laugh at that a little bit.

Q. Was the question like the most famous, most successful athlete?

IGA SWIATEK: I think it was the most successful. It's hard to answer that, honestly, in sports.

Q. Are you a game show person in general?

IGA SWIATEK: I do when I'm home a little bit. But mostly, yeah, not like, you know, the whole episodes, only just a little bit.

Q. You won this tournament three times already. What do you need to do this week to lift the trophy again?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, let's see, because I'm also not looking at the draws as usual. First I will focus on the first round. I think just the conditions, and also being aware that usually it's super windy here, and you need to accept that you're going to make a little bit more mistakes. I think this is important, because in past years I remember anyone who got more frustrated with the wind lost a lot of points because of it, I think. So, yeah, I think the weather is calmer this year, so we'll see how it goes during the tournament. Honestly, I'm going to treat this tournament match by match, step by step.

Q. When you lose in a tournament do you watch the finals?

IGA SWIATEK: No, I only watched the men's final live. But besides that, I really needed to rest from tennis a little bit. So I analyzed what happened during my match, but I didn't watch because I knew exactly what happened. It was pretty clear what I needed to focus on in the next tournament.

Q. There was a comment after the Australian Open that they might go to best-of-five sets for the women next year. Do you think that will work better for your game or not work so well for your game?

IGA SWIATEK: I think with the world right now that is kind of, like, speeding up, I don't really think it makes sense for us to play such long matches. Especially when I think it would be tough to keep the quality up throughout the whole match.

But if you ask specifically to my game, I consider myself one of the players that is like kind of tough in coping with endurance and longer matches. I think maybe I would have some advantage. Honestly, I've never played such a long match, so I have no idea how my body would react. I think also the whole season would change, because we would need to plan everything differently and prepare for these long, long matches. There would, for sure, be many, many more questions about the scheduling then.

Q. Can you share maybe what you're working on with your serve? What are you trying to do with that shot?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure getting the toss more stable, and twisting more. Also there are different parts of the body that you can focus on when you twist. There are some different stuff that I'm doing, but like at the same time moving the elbow more back or getting the hips more...

Q. Changing the motion?

IGA SWIATEK: No, no. It's not a change of motion, it's just like what intentions you want to have when you do the motion. I wouldn't call it a change. I don't think it's physical that much. From time to time you always have to remind yourself of stuff like that in tennis. So the same case on the backhand, the same case on the forehand. I feel like I need to focus on that more.

Q. Are you going to do some sightseeing before the tournament?

IGA SWIATEK: We spent, we went to the, Islamic, I don't know the proper name.

Q. Museum of Islamic Art.

IGA SWIATEK: Museum of Islamic Art. Thank you for the name. It was great. I think these places are fresh and you can see they're new and they're in beautiful places right next to the water. We got some nice clothes there. We saw some older era objects and nice pieces of art, and a lot of time we spent there as well.