How to learn from the best. Last year, Iga Świątek thought about spending part of the pre-season preparations on the grass court, which is the biggest challenge for her. “It’s a pretty crazy idea,” he admits. And he adds that the inspiration was Roger Federer. The pressure and nerves from last year’s Wimbledon went away, now the Polish tennis player focuses on calm learning and wants to give intuition a chance.
The main association with last year’s performance of Iga Świątek in Wimbledon, which ended in the third round, was nervousness. This time it will be different, because the world’s first rocket is clearly calmer and most often repeats the word “science”. And he learns not only from his own experiences. He also watches the greatest tennis legends, although not all of their ideas are ultimately implemented.
Crazy idea and plan to be an all-round tennis player
The competition on the grass in the perspective of the whole season is only a short break between the struggles on the ground and hard courts. The interlude, during which he shone, among others Roger Federer. The Swiss won eight of his 20 Grand Slam titles in London. To counterbalance, only one has secured itself by winning Roland Garros. In the case of Świątek, it’s the other way around – she feels like a fish out of water on a clay surface, and grass is her greatest challenge.
“Last year I thought maybe it would be a good option to do part of pre-season on grass. It’s a pretty crazy idea because right now we have four or five weeks of all preparation when you play the WTA Finals. So it could be difficult, but I heard that Roger once made preparations on the Roland Garros courts, because he wanted to win this tournament then – the Polish woman mentioned during a conversation with journalists.
She also did not hide that as a representative of the world’s top, she would like to be a complete tennis player who finds herself on all surfaces.
– I strongly believe that the best players can do well on any type of court. I want to become a tennis player who can also play well on grass and feels good on it. I do my best to hone my skills. Last year we did a great job with my coach in terms of feeling the ball and reacting to the slide and using it alone sometimes. This time we had more time to focus on the basics and play matches. I use this time as much as I can,” she said.
Świątek also reminded that the very short time to prepare for the game on grass is also a consequence of successful performances in Paris. “If you play well at Roland Garros, you only have a week of training and a week for the tournament and then you go to Wimbledon,” she pointed out.
“You can’t think about such things during a match”
The behavior of the 22-year-old on grass this season compared to the previous one has been markedly changed. At that time she was stressed, which was mainly related to the surface she had no time to adapt to, but also – as she herself mentioned – with her own attitude towards another start during an impressive series of victories.
“I hadn’t played on this surface at all before Wimbledon and it was hard to use intuition because there was pressure. I felt I was competing in a Grand Slam and I played well at Roland Garros, so I should play well here as well. But it’s different. Your brain has to get used to the fact that the ball bounces lower. You can’t think about such things during the game. I think this year it will be a little easier for me to use my intuition more often – she assured.
She also admitted that at that time she also had a fairly new role as the leader of the world ranking. Now, she still sometimes mentions the huge expectations she faces, but assures that she has changed her approach in terms of competition on grass.
“I approach Wimbledon differently. I am more open minded to learn something new. I have the impression that this is the first year when I could focus only on training and a large dose of learning. I hope I will be able to use it during the games.”
What did Świątek write in her notebook during the match?
As part of the challenge, she appeared in this week’s WTA tournament in Bad Homburg, where she reached the semi-finals (withdrew on Friday, citing health problems as the reason). During the quarter-finals, she quite often reached for a notebook during the breaks and wrote something in it.
– These were my own observations about what comes naturally to me, automatically, and what I still need to learn. I made good use of my time in Bad Homburg for training and getting used to the grass. I feel like I did a little more this year than in previous years. It seems to me that each year I catch the rhythm a little faster. I feel ready and excited,” she said.
Moving from his beloved clay to the still untamed grass, he builds on his greatest strengths and works on the most problematic play.
“I mainly focus on my footwork because that is my strength on other surfaces. Certainly the difficulty here is the slide – you have to slow down and stop before hitting in a different way – she pointed out.
She will have her first opportunity to present the results of her studies in London on Monday. Then he will face the Chinese Zhu Lin (33rd WTA) at the opening.
Source: sport.pl
