Iga Swiatek is ready to take on this year's US Open without all the 'baggage' that she had last year, even though she's not arriving expecting to win the event.
Last year's US Open was stressful for the Polish player. She was being hunted down by Aryna Sabalenka, who had a chance to dethrone her as world number one, something very few thought possible at the start of the year.
She also had to deal with being the defending champion after winning the event the previous year. As great as she's been, the Polish player has proven herself somewhat susceptible to pressure.
She's openly talked about pressure and how it impacts her, and it's not unheard of for her to fail in those moments. Naturally, as the best player in the world and the player who has been world number one for the longest amount of time out of all active players, she succeeds more than she fails.
A very notable example was recently at the Paris Olympics when she didn't play well in arguably the most important match of her career. It also happened last year at the US Open.
She was facing Jelena Ostapenko, a player who plays tennis very loosely, and she couldn't deal with it, so she ended up losing the match. The chance of winning the trophy and keeping the number one rank was gone.
In retrospect, this was a good development for her because it lessened the pressure, allowing her to finish the year with a fantastic run and reclaim the number-one rank on the WTA Tour.
This year doesn't feature any of the 'baggage' Swiatek described. She's just focused on taking it step by step, hoping to play as well as she can.
"Well, for sure last year I felt I had many things to defend, like World No. 1 position, all my points, and also the title itself. I felt like I have a lot of baggage on my shoulders. This year it's a little bit different. This year I'm just trying to focus on what should I do tennis-wise to play the best game possible."
"My expectations are not like so high compared to last year. So I'm going to try to focus on getting everything step by step and not put too much baggage on my shoulders."
Entering the event without any expectations shouldn't be a major surprise. She played only one preparation event and likely doesn't feel as confident in her tennis as usual.
It has been an intense season, with not the best results lately. After Roland Garros, things haven't gone that great for her, but this is a new chance to prove herself.
"I know it's been a really intense season, and after the Olympics, it hasn't been kind of, you know, easy. So I feel the best when I'm just focused on practicing and grinding on the court and really focus on just making my game better and not on the results. I'm just going to try to keep that mindset and that attitude, and yeah, then that's it."
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