'I Wasn't Fresh': Swiatek Opens Up About Energy Levels After Montreal Exit

Sunday, 13 August 2023 at 13:00

Updated at Monday, 11 August 2025 at 14:09

byZachary Wimer

Iga Swiatek narrowly missed out on the Canadian Open final in Montreal, and she named fatigue as one of the reasons contributing to the loss.

Swiatek puts in a lot of work in the gym in order to avoid such things, but it was a rather complicated week in Canada for her. The schedule was moved around due to rain, she had some tough three-set matches, and it all boiled over against Jessica Pegula.

After all, she's been very dominant and doesn't have too many long three-set matches under her belt. Her match against Pegula in particular wasn't a very good match.

The No. 1 player on the WTA Tour missed a lot of easy shots, including one on a match point, and part of that was her struggling with the conditions. She didn't even have a full 24 hours to recover, and it impacted her severely.

"Well, for sure physically it was a tough tournament. Especially that match against Karolina being delayed a couple of times, you know. I didn't really have time during the tournament to actually rest for a while and do nothing. So it wasn't easy, but it didn't change the fact that I just fought until the end."

"And this match today for sure physically was tough, like having only 16 hours to recover. For sure I'm not an easy sleeper, so it's hard to sleep after such a match as yesterday with a lot of adrenaline, you know. You kind of have to deal with that. It's the life of a tennis player. So I did what I could."

It was a very uncharacteristic match from Swiatek, as she was broken 11 times. That's the most she's ever endured during a match, and a lot of that was self-inflicted. Pegula put a lot of pressure on her, and the Pole crumbled towards the end.

"For sure I wasn't fresh today, but usually physicality is not something that is the reason why I'm losing, so I wouldn't say it had such a big influence."