According to former player Alex Corretja, who spoke to Eurosport, losing the world number one rank on the WTA Tour is not devastating for Iga Swiatek.
The Polish player lost her number-one rank quite recently after failing to defend her trophy from last year. Aryna Sabalenka took over, and while it was annoying for Swiatek to lose it, it wasn't a huge deal to her.
She spoke about it a few times since then, admitting that she wants it back, but her sole focus is mostly just on becoming a better player.
It's a good attitude to have because being world number one is essentially just being the most consistent player on Tour, which Aryna Sabalenka was this year.
It's a relatively easy fix, and that's to improve as a player, so by doing that, she's actively working to return to number one as well. In any case, Eurosport analyst Alex Corretja doesn't think it's a huge deal at all because nothing in her approach will change.
She is someone that, it doesn't really matter for her. If she's going to be No. 1 or No. 2, she's showing all the time that she wants to improve. That she's trying different things, that she's also been a little bit more open. I think she's understanding that she's not playing for one or two tournaments. She's playing for the next 10 years.
Corretja further praised Swiatek's handling of the situation as she didn't really seem fazed by it and returned to competition to smash everybody at the China Open and win the event.
When you are on court, you are on your own, but you have a team surround you, behind you, that brings you a little bit the ideas of what you can improve and what you need to do. I think it's just great to see that maybe she lost the No. 1 but, for her, it was not a devastating situation.
She just played better and better and she's going to be there for so many years and she will come back to No. 1 at some point again. This is going to be very interesting.
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