'At Every Press Conference': Swiatek Pressed on Sabalenka & Rybakina Rivalry

| by Balasz Virag

Iga Swiatek is a player who likes to focus on herself but it's not very easy when you get questioned about your rivals like Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina all the time.

There is a very good reason why Swiatek is questioned about them all the time and it's their pursuit of the Polish player. For much of last year, Swiatek was the undisputed number one player in the world with a huge lead but that lead is less than 1000 points as Sabalenka caught up.

If Rybakina had her 2000 points from Wimbledon she would have been within 2000 points of Swiatek as well so it's just an exciting time and the media loves stories like these. It's what drives the revenue for them so they will push it even if Swiatek dislikes it.

Last year I wasn’t even asked about other players and this year I’m asked basically in every press conference a couple of times, even though they’re on the other side of the draw, there’s nothing really connecting us in this tournament — there’s always something around that’s implying that things are different.

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Swiatek has shut down it before and that is not that entirely different from what other players did in regard to this new 'big three' narrative we've seen circulating this year. For Swiatek, it's mostly about focusing on yourself because your success has very little to do with other players and that's true.

But you always have to come back to what it is you want to achieve because it has nothing to do with other players, even rankings sometimes. Because you want to win matches and tournaments, and rankings go up after that.

She's had problems finding a good mindset earlier in her career but recently focusing on herself allowed her to unlock a really good method of going about her tennis career and the results speak for themselves. For grand slam trophies at age 22 with plenty of more coming in the future.

I don’t think I need any idea, I’ll just go forward. My whole career, if you’re talking about wins, I’ll try to win as much as possible obviously but I’ll try to develop as a player. I don’t think we all know what our limits are, unless we’re done and we’re really mature, but I’m 22, so I just really don’t know where my limits are.

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