The Australian Open is officially less than a week away, and Iga Swiatek will be the favourite, especially after her United Cup wins.
While Alexander Zverev was the hero of Germany in their United Cup winning run, Iga Swiatek was named the MVP of the event. She played a really excellent event, winning all five of her singles matches and quite convincingly so.
She bested Beatriz Haddad Maia (6-2, 6-2), Sara Sorribes Tormo (6-2, 6-1), Qinwen Zheng (6-2, 6-3), Caroline Garcia (4-6, 6-1, 6-1) and Angelique Kerber (6-3, 6-0). Her only loss was essentially the crucial match of the final, the doubles between her and Hubert Hurkacz on one side and Zverev and Laura Siegemund on the other side.
The Germans prevailed and won the event, which was disappointing for her, but it's been a wonderful week of preparation for the tournament that truly matters to most of the players.
The Australian Open is coming up, and looking back at her week, Swiatek is content with what she showed at the event. She didn't play some of the other contenders, such as Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, or Coco Gauff, but winning the way she did certainly proves she's not rusty.
"Well, I for sure will take feedback from my singles matches, but I'm happy that I played in a solid way. I'm not going to feel rusty in Melbourne when I start my first-round matches. I'm glad that all of the things that I worked on actually I improved."
Besides preparing for the Australian Open, the United Cup was a testing ground for the Olympics later this year. She wants to play with Hurkacz in the mixed doubles, and they showed pretty good chemistry at the event.
It certainly boosts them for the summer, where they'll try to win a medal for Poland. On top of that, it was just a nice learning experience. Singles and doubles tennis are not the same, and there is plenty to learn.
"Mixed doubles, it's always a great kind of lesson for me to play any kind of doubles. But for sure playing with Hubi, I think we're going to use it in next years of our careers. So any match is a great chance for us to learn. For sure, I did learn. I mean, I'm glad that we don't have super tiebreaks in singles (smiling)."
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