Iga Swiatek interview: 'Fame is hard for young people like me and Emma Raducanu'
There are very few teenagers who know what it feels like to win a major. Even fewer who have done so unseeded and without dropping a set.
Iga Swiatek is one, having lifted the 2020 French Open title. It just so happens that when Telegraph Sport interviewed her via a phone call at Melbourne Park, she was sat close to another.
“Funny thing, Emma’s sitting right behind me,” Swiatek says laughing, when asked whether she saw similarities between her and Raducanu’s flawless individual runs to grand slam glory. “What she did was amazing, going from qualifying – huge respect because she must have been tired. But I also know how it is to be in that zone and I remember how I felt at Roland Garros. I can imagine she had a pretty similar feeling.”
In her seven matches in Paris, Swiatek conceded only 28 games, defeating major champions Simona Halep and Sofia Kenin along the way, and doing so with an air of serene implacability. When Swiatek, 20, looks back on that fortnight, one feeling comes to mind. “It was a really peaceful time for me,” she says.
What followed though, was anything but. As Poland’s first grand slam champion, she was catapulted to fame back home and her life was forever altered. She now counts global brands like Asics and Rolex as major sponsors, and came second only to footballer and compatriot Robert Lewandowski at the Polish equivalent of Spoty last year.
She was an overnight star, and says few can relate to the experience – apart from Raducanu perhaps. “For me, what’s more important is what’s going to happen after,” Swiatek says, reflecting on the aftermath of her and Raducanu’s sudden success. “I don’t really know what her situation is. But young people such as ourselves, we’re not used to being on a spotlight all the time, we are used to being on court, playing matches. It’s hard at the beginning to adjust to that.”
Swiatek has not won another major yet but, as follow-up seasons go, last year was far from disastrous. She made the second week at all four grand slams, won titles in Adelaide and Rome, moved into the top 10 and reached the year-end WTA Finals in Guadalajara. But deep down she did struggle. “[When] I started the season it was pretty stressful because that was the first time in my life where I knew my sponsors trusted me and I had new partnerships. I wanted to show them this wasn’t just one tournament, I felt like I had huge baggage on my shoulders,” she says.
“I had to realise that, hey, if you’re not going to chill out a little bit, you’re not going to play well and prove to yourself or the world that it wasn’t just a one-time thing. I was able to go back to when I was an underdog for a little bit. But in 2021 I was on and off.”
Swiatek is not like most players. She opted to finish her schooling before fully dedicating herself to the tour and, ahead of her French Open win, she was still weighing up whether to enrol at university. She is also remarkably mature for a player of her age, softly spoken and introspective, unpacking each question layer by layer.
She also has a full-time sports psychologist in her entourage, a rarity on tour. Daria Abramowicz, a former competitive sailor for Poland, has travelled to almost every event with Swiatek for the past 2½ years, and is counted as one of her closest confidants. “She just made me smarter,” Swiatek has said. “I know more about sports and I know more about psychology and I can understand my own feelings and I can say them out loud.”
She put this into practice at the WTA Finals last November. Swiatek was seen crying at the back of the court in the closing stages of her loss to Maria Sakkari, and afterwards explained that “PMS hit me hard”. She was widely praised for opening up about her symptoms, such as mood swings and anxiety, which women can experience during their menstrual cycle.
“When I was on court in Guadalajara I felt a little bit ashamed that I was crying, because there’s this theory that athletes shouldn’t show weakness,” she says. “So I was torn about whether I should be like that or if I should just do what’s good for me. And sometimes crying is good, you know? Everyone reacts differently – someone else would break a racket, right? I wanted to explain the reason for my reaction and to make it easier for other girls, other women.
“It’s a normal reason to not feel good – the same as injury, being tired or something. I should not be ashamed, because half of the population has it, so why not talk about that, right? When I articulated that, it helped me to find the right solutions for it and to work on it. I just wanted to be honest.”
That honesty shines through. Swiatek says she recently had some “sleepless nights” after replacing coach of five years Piotr Sierzputowski with Tomasz Wiktorowski, who previously worked with compatriot Agnieszka Radwanska but, so far, so good. She looked strong in her run to the semi-final in Adelaide last week, helping her preparation for the Australian Open.
After 15 months of getting to grips with being a major champion though, her goals looking to Melbourne are rooted in mindset, rather than trophies. “I’m pretty ambitious, and I’m a perfectionist, so I want to do better. But, last year, I constantly wanted to prove something, and now I just want to play to enjoy it,” she says.
With the benefit of hindsight, is that advice she would give a new champion such as Raducanu, as she embarks upon the season ahead? “The biggest champions of our sports, they’re a master at that – the pressure is there for sure, but they can handle it. I still feel like I’m not on that level to give advice like that,” she says, laughing. “It’s on and off for me right now. Maybe in a few years I’m going to be able to say, ‘Hey, look what I did’.”
