Swiatek reveals she started the 2023 season with a defensive mindset

Tennis star Iga Swiatek had a phenomenal 2023 season, winning a Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, the WTA Finals, and finishing the year as the World No. 1.

Swiatek’s rise to the top of the game was meteoric. In 2020, she stunned the world by winning the French Open without dropping a set, becoming the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles title.

The Pole followed that up with another dominant performance at the 2022 Roland Garros and US Open, where she defeated Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur in the final, respectively. She also won six other titles that year, including the Indian Wells and the Miami Open, and reached the No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career.

However, being at the top also came with a lot of expectations and scrutiny. Swiatek admitted that she felt the pressure of defending her points and titles and that she sometimes lost her motivation. In an interview with puntodebreak.com, Swiatek stated that she started the 2023 season with a defensive mindset.

"That period was hard. When the season started, everyone was wondering how I would play after such a successful year, so I felt that any result I had would be insufficient, anything other than winning the tournament," the Pole said.

"Instead of wanting to win, I hoped not to lose. It was not something constructive, I started the events in the Middle East with a different approach," she added.

That approach paid off, as Swiatek won her first title of the year in Doha, beating Jessica Pegula in the final, 6-3, 6-0. She defended her title in Stuttgart by defeating World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.

The 22-year-old then defended her French Open title, defeating Karolina Muchova in the finals, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. She also won the WTA 250 tournament in her home country, beating Laura Siegemund in the final, 6-0, 6-1.

Iga Swiatek then won the Beijing Open, defeating Liudmila Samsonova in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. Three weeks later, she appeared at the WTA Finals in Cancun, where she dominated the court and won the title without dropping a set.

The Pole beat Marketa Vondrousova, Jabeur, and Gauff in the group stage, Sabalenka in the semifinals, and Pegula in the final. She also reclaimed the No. 1 ranking from Sabalenka.