Iga Swiatek is handling the Madrid Open loss to Aryna Sabalenka maturely dismissing any excuses and underlining that there are no regrets about how she played.
Iga Swiatek played fine in the Madrid Open final but for the most part, she was simply outplayed by a player who played better on that day. It was a good and competitive match with the Polish player having pockets of play where she looked better than Sabalenka.
The problem was that Sabalenka for the most part played better when it mattered the most and she was able to produce more impressive shots when she needed them. The serve was one of those shots, especially with the altitude in Madrid. It was just a loss to a better player and Swiatek is okay with it, more than some other things such as the scheduling.
We just played on a good level, but [Sabalenka] was better today. Maybe sometimes I could be more proactive, but honestly, I think we both played good. I don't have any big regrets.
The conditions certainly proved more complimentary to Sabalenka and the way she played. Her serve was more effective, the ball flew really fast which kind of negated Swiatek and her supreme movement and the power with which Sabalenka hit was also greater than that of Swiatek.
Sometimes it's tougher, sometimes it's easier. That's why we have variety in tennis, and that's why sometimes players are playing better on some surfaces and some on different [surfaces]. But it doesn't really matter because she won, and I just respect that and I don't want to take it from Aryna.
Shot-making was a big deal in this match and it was really a game of centimetres. Swiatek talked about it because she dropped her serve on a shot that ultimately was wide by a millimetre, maybe even less than that.
I think [the final] was really tight, and it was a matter of kind of a few centimetres, you know, and sometimes it's in, sometimes it's out. But I did my best to keep the intensity and still keep the control here.
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