Iga Swiatek is playing really strong tennis in 2024, but she's not one to declare herself a favorite ahead of the Australian Open.
Swiatek has been a fascinating tennis player for much of her career. A ruthless player on the tennis court who delivers bagels like it's nothing while a pretty mellow personality off the court.
It's an interesting contrast, but don't be fooled; she's very dedicated to her craft, which these early matches in 2024 show. She's an even better player this year and is by far the most likely to win the Australian Open.
Her performances have been stellar, and she's aware of it, yet speaking at the 2024 United Cup, she was dismissive about being the favourite for the Australian Open.
As she often likes to say, she just wants to be a good player and improve every day. That's the goal, and whatever happens on the court is secondary.
For sure I feel like I'm playing well and I make progress comparing to last year. I feel like I have more skills to play on these faster hard courts. I don't know, I just feel like I can really be in a good place physically and mentally. I'm just using on court. Obviously every tournament is a different story.
Grand Slam, it's always a little bit tougher, there's more pressure. I'm just thinking about finishing this tournament well and we'll see what's going to happen in Melbourne.
It's a pretty sensible approach from Swiatek, who has had moments where pressure seemingly got to her. Trying to minimize that ahead of a pretty big event seems normal, but she's probably aware that everybody is looking at her.
We'll see what happens. It's been a good event for her in the past, but she always ran into a player who was able to muster a better level than her on that day.
Last year, it was Elena Rybakina, and the year before, it was Danielle Collins, and both went to the final in those years. Neither won the trophy, though.
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