After a stressful few weeks on clay, where she had a target on her back as the Roland-Garros defending champion, Iga Swiatek is happy to be flying under the radar at Wimbledon.
The Polish No.7 seed has played a total of eight professional level matches on grass in her career – including Qualifying – and despite being a former junior champion at SW19, Swiatek knows she has a lot to learn on the surface in order to produce top performances.
“Even though I'm the seventh seed, I don't give myself more pressure because I know that I don't have experience. I just try to learn as much as possible,” the 20-year-old told reporters ahead of her Tuesday opener against Hsieh Su-Wei.
“I think the work that I'm going to do here is going to give effects in a few years. You just need experience on grass, basically.
“Actually, it's kind of nice because I can play without any expectations. After all that fuss that was around during clay season, during Roland-Garros, it's just easier actually. I'm enjoying it.”
Swiatek indeed seems to be having a great time at the All England Club. After sending Andy Murray a tweet suggesting they have a practice session together so he could give her some tips, the young Pole bumped into the two-time Wimbledon champion on Friday.
“We actually spoke yesterday just for a second because we were both going the same way to the practice. I joked maybe we're going to the same practice,” she said with a smile.
“But I assume he's pretty busy. Playing with a girl probably would be some kind of a waste of time for him because, you know, he's much stronger and obviously he needs to play with some guys. I'm not bothering him, especially before Wimbledon.
“Maybe that's going to come up again, but really he's such a nice guy, it's just nice to talk with him and to meet him. It would be great to play with him, but I don't want to be too high-maintenance.”
Swiatek’s keenness to improve on grass is evident and she plans on watching match footage of players who have previously succeeded on the lawns of Wimbledon. “If you play only three weeks on grass per year, you need something more to get experience."
One journalist suggested Swiatek might want to watch videos of Rafael Nadal on grass, since he managed to translate his heavy topspin and great success on clay into two Wimbledon titles.
“For sure, in the next weeks I'm going to be watching a lot of matches, not only Rafa but especially girls, because doing what Rafa is doing is sometimes impossible for women,” admitted Swiatek, who is renowned for her heavy topspin forehand.
“I'm going to watch Simona [Halep] for sure and her run when she won. I'll try to find some experience from that.”
Swiatek will have to be sharp from the off as she opens against the ever-tricky Hsieh. The pair are very familiar to each other, having faced off in both singles and doubles in the past, and while Swiatek has defeated the veteran en route to the Roland-Garros trophy last autumn, she is well aware of just how tough an opponent she can be.
“She's just unpredictable, so you have to always be ready,” said Swiatek of the 35-year-old, who can pull off every shot in the book – those not in any book as well – and can spin the ball or hit big and flat on demand at any moment.
“There are some players that can play solid and just hold the ball sometimes. But she's the one that is going to come up with some crazy idea, which is great. That's why it's so fun to watch her. But it's hard to be on the other side of the net.
“It's going to be a hard match. I just think that if my game's going to be there and if I'm going to be in a good rhythm, if I'm going to approach the ball and not be late to many of the shots, I think I can do it. We'll see. It's going to be tricky.”
