Iga Swiatek – Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hard luck, Iga. What made Mirra such a tough opponent today?

IGA SWIATEK: I don’t know. I think she just played a consistent match. No matter what the moment was, she was playing kind of similar.

But for sure my game was pretty up and down. I wasn’t able to play my level, I would say. She just used it. So that’s what good players do.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What perspective are you looking at this Mideast swing? What is your head space?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, for sure I’m not happy with the results. I feel like I under-performed. For sure I need to, like, talk with my team a bit and plan the next weeks a bit differently ’cause I haven’t had much time to practice before these tournaments.

I felt that, yeah, my tennis was kind of… There were some things missing that should have been there. We’ll talk about it.

Q. What is the most frustrating part, is it that you’re trying something new and it’s not working? What is the most frustrating part of this month? I can tell you’re very upset.

IGA SWIATEK: Well…

Q. Is it technical more or mental?

IGA SWIATEK: I would say technical, yeah, because I was able to play better on a surface that I didn’t really like before. But also on the other hand it wouldn’t be that easy here to play that well as previous years because of these heavy balls. My topspin wasn’t really doing anything.

I guess it’s a mix of things.

Q. The sun is out. Do you think that could have been contributed to the way you played?

IGA SWIATEK: No.

Q. Would you know before you come on court, when you hit in the morning, if it’s not the best of days for you?

IGA SWIATEK: Both nos. You can’t really predict.

Q. (Question on perspective on her game.)

IGA SWIATEK: I think it’s pretty similar. As I was saying before, nothing has changed still from a week honestly. I think, yeah, it’s just evolution.

We’re for sure working on some stuff. But yeah, I would for sure need some more time to do that than, like, three days before these tournaments.

Q. In general, this month we can see from the results a lot of the top seeds have not necessarily performed the way they used to. Is that a calendar thing? Is that the trickiness of having back-to-back 1000s? Can you see a theme?

IGA SWIATEK: For sure it’s a calendar thing. Like, we’re not going to be able to be consistent for many years playing week by week. Also it’s not like some time ago that outside of, like, top-20 players, they were just getting destroyed more. Now anybody can win these tournaments. It is like that since couple of years.

But I feel like for sure the calendar is not helping. Again, like, we need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls. Yeah, it’s not easy.

I’m not surprised.

Q. What exactly caught you off the guard especially in this game? Was it the agility or speed she brought?

IGA SWIATEK: I think I just played not with — I wasn’t really sure where my ball is going to go. I wasn’t as precise as I should be. Mirra is a good player. I already could see that before when we practiced and when we played in Cincinnati. It’s not like I can win against her when I play worse.

I would say, yeah, just the stuff that I wanted to do wasn’t really working.

Q. When Aryna lost yesterday, she said she hasn’t been feeling the same hunger at these tournaments since the Australian Open. What was your mindset coming into the part of year where you typically do quite well?

IGA SWIATEK: No, I had the same kind of mindset as like every year, I would say. But the preparation for sure was different. Before I lost in Australia early, so I had time to do some stuff. This year I didn’t.

Honestly, I’m not that direct usually, but I would blame this performance on the lack of practice before because I didn’t have time.

Q. End of last year, I asked you about communication with the WTA under the new leadership. You said maybe in the off-season there would be more conversations. Portia Archer has been around since August. Have you felt the difference in communication, especially with issues like the balls?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly I was kind of busy with my own life, so I wasn’t much involved in WTA stuff.

But I feel like Portia is much more, like, communicative and available. Also the way she takes stands like on these hard topics, she’s helping us to solve some problems. I think it’s really great.

But, yeah, I mean, that place in my life, I kind of wanted to focus on myself. I’ve been involved in some stuff before that we couldn’t do anything and we couldn’t push some things through. At some point you just need to, yeah, focus on yourself and not waste energy on that.

But for sure it will be nice to, like, be caught up and know what’s going on. I feel like with Portia and with the players council now, the communication is better.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports