Iga Swiatek has faced one of the most rigorous weeks of her season at the Canadian Open, but she remained adamant her energy is still intact.
As the tennis season enters its final phase this month, Swiatek has now played a pair of three-set matches in just three tournaments all year. She found a higher gear in the decider to end the spirited run of American qualifier Danielle Collins 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in Friday's quarterfinals in Montreal.
The win over Collins follows her other three-set win this week against Karolina Muchova. The other instances when Swiatek played at least two matches that lasted the full three sets this season were in Madrid and at Wimbledon but didn't win the title at both tournaments.
Thursday's order of play was hardly the most ideal schedule for players as heavy showers caused some of the matches to be suspended. Swiatek was fortunate to get through her match against Muchova despite a double rain delay. While it's been both mentally and physically demanding since recovery time is squeezed in that regard, Swiatek isn't too worried about her energy levels.
"It's (energy) still high. So I wouldn't worry about that. For sure tomorrow is going to be a little bit tougher since we have not a lot of time to recover, but physically I've been really well prepared."
"And I've never had a situation in my life where I kind of after two longer matches when I didn't have energy. I think actually the hardest tournament in terms of that was the Australian Open last year, but this tournament I feel good, so it's fine."
Swiatek extends her record over Danielle Collins to 3-1 in their head-to-head with all four of their meetings coming on hard courts. She admitted to incorporating some high-intensity level in her ground game to match Collins and exert pressure, knowing just how dangerous the American is when given time and space as was the case at the 2022 Australian Open.
"Today I knew that she can do this again (hit the fastest balls) because I already experienced that in Australian Open, so I wanted to be proactive and be just really intense for her to feel the pressure as well."
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