The break didn't last that long for Iga Swiatek, as she's already back to practicing in Tokyo ahead of the 2023 Japan Open.
Swiatek concluded her US Open experience with a shocking loss to Jelena Ostapenko. The Latvian gives her a lot of trouble, something she spoke about in a recent interview. She opted to skip the Guadalajara event, explaining her reasons in a social media post.
Ostapenko is in Mexico this week, so maybe it was because of that. Jokes aside, Swiatek has been very vocal about trying to maintain a sensible calendar, so expect her to pick and choose her events more carefully in the future.
She took a few days off before committing back to the sport she loves, though the break didn't last long. She's already in Japan preparing for the WTA 500 event in Tokyo, and her early arrival has several reasons.
The conditions in Asia can be rather brutal with the high humidity and the summer that generally extends a bit longer than in Europe, for example. Getting there early will allow her to better prepare for the next event and the upcoming few events.
It's been a while since players played in Asia, though Swiatek remembers her Olympic experience from Tokyo from a few years ago well. Her most recent update on social media shows her practicing in Tokyo, seemingly in good spirits after some tough weeks in the United States.
We'll see how well she bounces back after those disappointing results though they didn't seem to bother her too much in the moment.
She was always unlikely to produce a similar year to the one she had last year, not only because it's hard but also because her competition stepped up in a major way. We'll see what happens in the last couple of months of the season.
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