PARIS: Iga Swiatek returns to a successful hunting ground, aiming for her first Olympic title, in addition to her four French Open titles at Roland Garros.
The Polish world number 1 dominates on the red clay of Paris, winning four of the last five tournaments and is unbeaten there since her quarterfinal loss to Greece's Maria Sakkari in 2021.
The five-time Grand Slam champion, who won the 2022 US Open, wants to go much further than she did at the 2021 Tokyo Games, where she lost in the second round to Paula Badosa.
The 23-year-old Swiatek has had plenty of time to prepare for the Olympic Games in Paris after her early exit at Wimbledon, where she lost in the third round to Yulia Putintseva.
The painful defeat on the All England Club pitch abruptly ended Swiatek's 21-match winning streak.
She was then asked how she would prepare for the Olympic Games in Paris.
“I'm definitely going to learn something and get a little more rest,” she said. “I don't know, I think even though I didn't do well in this tournament, I deserve it considering how the whole season is looking.”
“I should literally do better because I won't be able to play good tennis all season.”
In 2020, Swiatek made a name for herself in the tennis world by winning the French Open without dropping a single set.
She was the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles title and has dominated the event ever since, with her only loss coming three years ago.
Last month, she defeated Italy's Jasmine Paolini in a one-sided final to become the fourth woman in the modern era to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen four times, after Justine Henin, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.
The world number 1 also won a triple on clay court in Madrid-Rome-Roland Garros. The only other woman in history to achieve this in the same season is Serena Williams.
Swiatek has a sporting background – her father Tomasz represented Poland in rowing at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
“Normally a small child has trouble hitting even one or two balls, but she was able to hit dozens of shots,” recalls Artur Szostaczko, her first coach.
“She was a fighter… I knew I didn't have to worry if it came to a super tiebreak – Iga wouldn't be able to handle the pressure.”
Szostaczko taught Swiatek until she was 10 years old.
Her coach at the time was Michal Kaznowski, who remembers that Swiatek always wanted to be treated as an equal to her hard-working big sister Agata.
“Iga was really angry with me because I suggested a simple exercise where I would give Agata eight balls but Iga only six because she was younger,” he said.
“That made her angry. She went to her father and said she wanted as many as Agata.”
Swiatek hopes that her determination will carry her to the gold medal on her favorite course in Paris.
