Defending champion and world No.1, Iga Swiatek lost everything on Sunday with her elimination in the round of 16 of the US Open by Jelena Ostapenko after a match that escaped her: “I don’t understand”, said she acknowledged. Ostapenko won 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to defeat the Pole for the fourth time in as many games. This season, Swiatek won her third Roland-Garros but she lost in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and in the 8th in Australia and New York. At a press conference, she returned to the nightmarish epilogue.
How do you explain your loss? “She plays well against me. She always has. But I’m surprised that my level has changed so much during the match. Usually, when I play badly, I play badly at first and then I come back or fix the problem. Here, the exact opposite happened. I don’t know what happened but suddenly I lost all control. I don’t know why I started making so many mistakes. Usually I know what to do in these situations, I feel what I’m doing wrong. This time, I don’t understand… my faults were so huge. I usually go back well and there, suddenly, I couldn’t go back. I don’t have the faintest idea why.”
What do you think of your Grand Slam season? “I’m not happy with my hard court performances in Grand Slams. I really need to work. I’m glad to have some time to come home for a while, clear my head and spend some time away from the circuit.”
How have you experienced these months as world No.1 and what are you going to do to regain first place? “It was very important. It was great. But on the other hand, it got exhausting. I have to manage to do what my team tells me and what great players like Roger (Federer), Novak (Djokovic) and Rafa (Nadal) talk about: focus on the tournaments and not the ranking. I usually don’t pay attention to stats, but I actually love them. I would have liked to stay N.1 a little longer. When I was little, I wanted to break records. I have already done so since I became the first Polish woman to win a Grand Slam tournament (Roland-Garros 2020, editor’s note). Obviously, being N.1 is great and when you go down, you’re sad. The great players I mentioned know that it can come back if you work hard, focus on the right goals and just grow as a player. And, this weird game aside, I feel like I’m making progress. I am able to do more things. This season, the hardest part of which has passed, has been really tough and intense. I’m happy to have some rest.”
