Iga Swiatek's opponents might fear that the Pole will be even better in 2023 after she admitted to feeling mentally stronger ahead of the new season.
Swiatek dominated the WTA Tour in 2022. She won the French Open and US Open, secured four WTA 1000 titles, went on a 37-match winning streak from February until July, and finished as the year-end world No. 1.
Unsurprisingly, Swiatek was named the 2022 WTA Player of the Year after those exceptional efforts. Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Ons Jabeur, Caroline Garcia, and Elena Rybakina were the other nominees for the honor.
After losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA Finals semifinal, Swiatek admitted she was relieved that the season had finished so she could rest after the most grueling season of the 21-year-old's career.
However, after taking a break, she sounds confident about her chances in 2023. Swiatek feels mentally stronger and wants to focus on the new season instead of looking back at 2022.
“I just think that (it would) be pretty easy for my head to kind of compare everything to last year. I feel like it’s not going to be helpful, because last year was so – on the one hand, it wasn’t perfect – but sometimes when you win tournaments, all your head can remember is those good moments and that it went so smoothly."
“It wasn’t like that, but I didn’t really want to go into those tournaments and be held back by my previous results. I wanted to treat (them) as new chapters, so I’m going to try to do that. This is the biggest challenge, I’d say."
“Yeah, we’ll see how I’m going to go with that. Usually when I have goals like that, I had like ups and downs, but I feel like I’m getting stronger and stronger in my mind, so maybe I’m going to be able to control that.”
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