"I felt the pressure, I didn't want to lose" - Swiatek honest after Australian Open exit
WTASunday, 22 January 2023 at 11:00
Updated at Sunday, 12 January 2025 at 19:11
Iga Swiatek was the biggest favorite to win the 2023 Australian Open, but she lost to the reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the fourth round.
Last year, the 21-year-old Pole dominated the WTA Tour when she finished ahead of her closest competitor by more than six thousand points.
Therefore, many expected her to keep winning in 2023, but it's not possible to win every event that an athlete enters, and Swiatek admitted that there was too much pressure for her at the first major of the season.
"I felt like I took a step back in terms of how I approach these tournaments, and I maybe wanted it a little bit too hard. So I’m going to try to chill out a little bit more. That’s all. For sure past two weeks have been pretty hard for me."
"So I felt today that I don’t have that much to take from myself to fight even more. I felt the pressure, and I felt that I don’t want to lose instead of I want to win. So that’s a base of what I should focus on in the next couple of weeks."
After the match, the young Pole also praised her opponent, who is currently ranked 25th but would be in the Top 10 if she had been awarded points for her Wimbledon triumph.
"She was just better today, honestly, and she played in a really solid way. Her ranking should be better, but we all know what happened in Wimbledon. I think tactically she was kind of composed and just able to stay focused."
"She was a better player today. I don’t know what to tell you in terms of analyzing the match. On the other hand, if you want to win a tournament, you have to kind of be better than everybody."
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