Iga Swiatek is not losing sight of her sense of purpose and highlights her primary goals for not just the end of the current campaign but also the upcoming one.
Swiatek spoke to the media after securing her place in the last 16 of the China Open in a rain-interrupted second-round match against Varvara Gracheva, which she won in straight sets. She mapped out her end-of-season objectives, whereby her focus will all be on improving tactically, technically, and individually - not necessarily pursuing points.
The 22-year-old fears that she could have depleted her fuel tank as the season draws to a close. With a few tournaments left on the schedule, including the prestigious WTA Finals, she has commenced working out tactics and strategies for the new season.
The Pole admits that the short timespan during the off-season means that she can only improve by starting out earlier. With her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, Swiatek has begun working on subtle details in her game for the upcoming season.
"But overall I'm also worried that it's the last tournaments of the season, so I'm not going to be 100 percent fresh. My main goal is to do some stuff differently on court in terms of the technique and tactics, to develop as a player, not really chase points or rankings."
"I realized how much work I have to do in pre-season because there are a lot of things I want to improve. My coach also has a good plan. Sometimes it's not possible to do all of that in two weeks. But we kind of started doing it."
Swiatek relinquished the No. 1 ranking for the first time in 75 weeks after this year's US Open. In her first tournament back following her unsuccessful title defense in New York, Swiatek lost in the quarterfinals in Tokyo stating that she was rusty. But she aims to close out the year with strong results, starting with the China Open, where she will face fellow Pole Magda Linette next.
"I don't know how it's going to look on matches obviously, because it's totally different story. I was feeling a little bit rusty in Tokyo because after that reset, after three weeks without playing tournaments, you can feel like that a little bit. But, yeah, it doesn't really matter for me. I'll just do my best no matter what."
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