Iga Świątek finally without pressure? “I felt like I had lifted some baggage off my shoulders”

For over 70 weeks, Iga Świątek was the leader of the WTA world ranking and won tournament after tournament. In early September, the Polish player was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the US Open in New York, defeated by Jelena Ostapenko 2:1 (6:3, 3:6, 1:6.).

Her most dangerous rival, Aryna Sabalenka, took advantage of this situation . Although the Belarusian lost in the final to Coco Gauff, it had no impact on the WTA rankings and the 25-year-old became the world leader in women’s tennis for the first time in her career.

Currently, Iga Świątek is over 1,000 points behind her rival, but despite losing her place as the leader of the ranking, she has gained something else. It is peace and a lack of pressure, which the 22-year-old said at a recent press conference.

I felt like I had some baggage lifted off my shoulders and I could focus more on… getting back to a calmer, more normal rhythm of exercise. It’s a little easier to get back into the mindset of chasing someone because we’ve been doing that our whole lives,” Świątek said.

The Pole was eliminated from the WTA Tokyotournament in the quarterfinals, but will start competing in Beijing on Sunday night. What are the 22-year-old’s goals? – My main goal is to try to do a few things differently on the court in terms of technique and tactics, to develop as a player, and not chase rankings – concluded Świątek.