Iga Swiatek practised with tape on her mouth a few days ago leaving many puzzled but she offered an explanation during her press conference.
Swiatek arrived in Montreal early for the Canadian Open and practised a few times. One of those practices had her sporting tape over her mouth which left many fans puzzled as to why. Some speculated it was a new training technique and she confirmed it was.
Speaking during her introductory press conference Swiatek confirmed that it was something that was advised to her but she didn't want to go in-depth saying that she would explain it wrong. It's supposed to benefit her endurance among other things.
I don't get it either. No, but, it's harder to breathe when you're only breathing with your nose and it's easier for my heart rate to go up, you know? And I think it has something to do with endurance, but I am not gonna explain you properly, because I'm not an expert.
Swiatek further confirmed that she generally does what the team recommends her without asking too many questions. Practising with tape on her mouth made everything she does on a tennis court harder which isn't a huge surprise. We'll see if it will have the desired effect in a few days when she starts playing.
Sometimes I don't get the things they tell me to do either. I am doing that for a long time now. So yeah, it got pretty easy, but for sure you can see the difference in, you know, how everything you do on court is getting more and more hard with that tape on your mouth. So I guess, it's the way to kind of work on my endurance by not having me, you know, run so fast and do extreme things?
According to the draw, Swiatek will play either Karolina Pliskova or Lin Zhu in the second round.
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