Much like her idol growing up Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek plays her best tennis in Paris at Roland Garros but she's not aiming to replace him as Roland Garros' most decorated player.
Iga Swiatek's major breakthrough came a few years ago at the pandemic Roland Garros which was held in autumn with much slower conditions than usual due to the cold weather at the time. She steamrolled everyone en route to her first final beating Kenin in the final to win her maiden grand slam trophy.
Now she's going to contest for her 4th grand slam trophy and 3rd Roland Garros trophy after beating Beatriz Haddad Maia in the semi-final. She's quite a bit away from Nadal's 14 and it's not even a thing that motivates her. She doesn't want to equal him in that regard.
Well, I wouldn't say that kind of motivation, it's my style, you know. I'm more of a person who just try to do her best every day and hope for the best. But, no, like Rafa, what he did and what he's still doing, it's pretty amazing. I never kind of knew that it's gonnabe possible for me.
Nobody is likely going to catch that mark because outside of Nadal and Roland Garros, nobody ever came close. Djokovic has been spectacular at the Australian Open, winning his 10th earlier this year and that's still four away from Nadal's mark at Roland Garros.
We're talking about two of the greatest tennis players of all time. Equaling that is pretty impossible with Swiatek herself laughing off at the prospect of her coming anywhere close to 14 Roland Garros. She described it as totally out of reach.
So it was totally out of my reach, if I can say that. And, you know, still he played so well so many years, I don't know if it's going to be possible forme. But I just try to compete, you know, keep it cool year by year and just do everything step by step. So I wasn't really thinking that.
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