Iga Swiatek was beaten in the 2024 US Open quarter-final by Jessica Pegula. After the match, the Polish player reacted to the loss, admitting that she didn't have any goals when it came to the results.
Swiatek is the reigning world number one, so every time she enters an event, she's expected to do really well. The Polish player was also expected to make a good run at Flushing Meadows, as she did by making the quarter-final, even though her performance at the US Open wasn't the best.
She was easily beaten by Pegula in straight sets, which many analysts expected to happen the other way around. After the match, Swiatek reflected on expectations heading into the event, admitting that she didn't have high expectations. She doesn't feel like it helps her overall when she has them and after all, many players can win an event.
“Well, I'm always trying to have lower expectations, because I know that, like, any of us can win this tournament, and it's not going to be easy, you know. And also, I feel like when I have high expectations, I never perform well.”
“So I try to lower them. It's not like it's just low and that's it, you know, because it's hard to have low expectations when everybody is expecting something from you, and you kind of know that you might have a game to play well.”
As the top layer in the world, Swiatek does deal with a lot of pressure, and she's done fairly decently managing that. She doesn't always do it well, but for the most part, she's been able to handle the expextations well. Keeping expectations out of the talk helps her because she simply focuses on the work.
She works hard to become a better player overall, hoping that her efforts will be rewarded through results. It's worked perfectly for her so far, but she doesn't really define her goals as a semi-final, final, or winning the event. She takes it match by match, wanting to improve with every match.
“But for sure, I mean, I remember how it was last year, and, you know, I'm not gonna just expect from myself that I'm always going to win. I'm more just focusing on the work.”
“And it's more of an answer, because when I talk to you guys, because everybody is always, like, speaking about results straightaway when you go to a tournament, they want to know what my goal is, I don't know, winning the final, the semifinal, and it's just not it, you know. These are not my goals when I go in a tournament.”
Most tennis players would admit to wanting to win the event, but Swiatek has different mindset. She keeps avoiding that, emphasizing work as the main goal in her career.
“That's my answer kind of, because I want to explain that I don't expect from myself the results. I'm more expecting that I'm going to work and I'm going to go through some problems and work on them, and that's it.”
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