Polish star enters US Open with renewed confidence
\n LONDON
\nSix-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek said recent progress had encouraged her after what she described as the toughest season of her career as the Pole bids for her first major title of the year at the US Open.
\nThe 25-year-old endured an unusually difficult first half of the campaign by her lofty standards. She reached the Australian Open quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion Elena Rybakina, fell in the fourth round at Roland Garros, where she had previously excelled, and exited Wimbledon in the third round as she failed to defend her title.
\nSwiatek, who has slipped to eighth in the world rankings, captured her first title of the season earlier this month with a commanding victory over Rybakina in the Canadian Open final, providing a timely confidence boost ahead of the year\u2019s final Grand Slam. After winning her maiden major title at Roland Garros in 2020, Swiatek has lifted at least one Grand Slam trophy in every season since 2022 and will be eager to preserve that streak.
\n\u201cFor me, for sure, it wasn\u2019t an easy season,\u201d Swiatek said on Saturday.
\n\u201cProbably, the toughest one and the most challenging one. Obviously, I had to change coaches before the clay court season, which was a tricky situation.
\nThen I started working with Francis (Francisco Roig), and just wanted to implement all the stuff that we did in practice. \u201cBut, on the other hand, I didn\u2019t have a lot of practice time. So probably it calmed down, everything calmed down after Wimbledon. I managed to get some days off, reset a little bit, and we had a much longer training block. So it really helped me to just implement this stuff that I was talking about.\u201d
\nSwiatek said recent results had left her encouraged by the progress she has made.
\n\u201cThe last two tournaments (Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open) were super positive,\u201d she said. \u201cEven though I lost in Cincinnati, this match against Jess (Jessica Pegula in the semifinals) was really high level.
\n\u201cSo I feel happy with my game and with the changes that I made. Just looking forward, now.\u201d
\nThe former world number one can also draw confidence from her record in New York, where she claimed the US Open title in 2022. She has not advanced beyond the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows since, however, exiting at that stage in each of the last two years. Swiatek opens her US Open campaign against China\u2019s Wang Xiyu. The men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles main draws get under way later on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Polish star enters US Open with renewed confidence LONDON Six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek said recent progress had encouraged her after what she described as the toughest season of her career as the Pole bids for her first major title of the year at the US Open. The 25-year-old endured an unusually difficult first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n