The 2020 Tennis season ended on a high for Polish tennis sensation Iga Swiatek who won the Roland Garros after pulling off a serious upset. It was her first Grand Slam at the age of 19 and the Polish star feels it won’t be her last.
Recently she spoke about her coach Piotr Sierzputowski in an interview organised by the WTA. She also spoke about her surreal experience of winning the Roland Garros where she defeated the likes of Marketa Vondrousova, Su-Wei Hsieh, Eugenie Bouchard, Simona Halep, Martina Trevisan, Nadia Podoroska en route to the finals against Sofia Kenin. The Polish youngster dominated Kenin to win in straight sets in her first Grand Slam finals.
She said: “My coach and I have a great relationship off the court. It is very important to me because I feel comfortable when I travel. Before, when my team was smaller, I only trained with him because he was the only person who supported me. He was with me regardless of what happened.
“Besides, he’s open-minded. He is learning with me. We could say that her player has already won a Major title, but in reality, when we talked about the goals for the new season – she said that she would be satisfied only when I won others.,” Swiatek shared how her coach would only be satisfied when she had won the other Grand Slams as well. “The Roland Garros trophy will not be the only one and I will prove to be a constant and mature player. I know that he is ambitious and he wants me to learn more.”
Swiatek is now gearing up for the Australian Open as she will begin her season in Melbourne in a WTA tune-up event as a part of her preparation. The 19-year old had to deal with a lot after her life changed at the Roland Garros last year.
The two weeks were crazy after the French Open,” she added. “But later, when we started focusing on practice, I thought it would be hard for me because I was tired.
“But actually, when I was on the court it was like coming back to basics and back to what I know and what I’ve been doing for so long. It was great. I could see that it’s my place to be and I felt safe there, good and confident.”
Swiatek became the youngest woman to win the French Open since Monica Seles since 1992. She also became the first one to do so without dropping a set since Justin Henin in 2007. Her win in Paris has meant that she had taken a huge leap in rankings and is currently at a career-high rank of 17. She was also voted as the most improved tennis player.
It will be interesting to see how she performs at the Australian Open in February.
