Iga Swiatek – R3 Press Conference – 2025 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships

THE MODERATOR: Iga, congrats. How were the conditions out there for you today?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I just enjoyed playing. First set was tight, but I managed to break Dayana a couple of times at the end of the set. I was for more efficient and happy to close it without a tiebreak.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You don’t know who you’re going to play, it’s not even one of two, it’s one of four possible people. They’re still playing, your next opponent.

IGA SWIATEK: Isn’t Mirra… Didn’t they play their first matches already?

Q. Yes.

IGA SWIATEK: So it’s two people.

Q. Anyway, when you don’t know who you’re going to play yet.

IGA SWIATEK: Wait, who am I playing?

Q. They’re on court now.

IGA SWIATEK: Mirra and Peyton. So they already played their first match.

Q. When you were stepping on court, it was even wider.

IGA SWIATEK: I don’t know my next opponent because I don’t look at the draw.

Q. Ever.

IGA SWIATEK: Ever.

Q. When you have to play every day, a condensed 1000, how much time do you need to prepare for your next opponent?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly I’m not watching anyway, so Wim is in trouble because he likes to watch, he likes to analyze. Usually it takes him couple of hours to do that.

But for example yesterday, he did in like one and a half hour to prepare for the match against Dayana. So it’s more on him to be in a hurry little bit.

For sure it’s not comfortable when you’re, like, finishing your match at, what, I don’t know, 9, then you need to do recovery up until like midnight, go quickly to sleep to be ready to play at 1 the next day. But it was a rain delay, so we have no influence on that. I was lucky I played a match yesterday anyway.

You just need to adjust, and that’s it.

Q. There was an incident obviously with Emma yesterday. For you personally, how much thought do you ever give to the fact that you interact with fans very closely? Have you ever had any scary incidents? Do you think anything extra needs to be done for player safety?

IGA SWIATEK: We were able to avoid one, like, incident that might have been scary back in the day when I was, like, hosting my own event in Poland. Yeah, there are fans that are kind of, I don’t know, everywhere. But I’m pretty sure that they don’t have any bad intentions.

Obviously, you know, we are public persons, so we should always keep our eyes open and ready to react if we feel uncomfortable.

I’m sure it must have been tough for Emma.

Q. Speaking specifically about the incident, what did you make of the way it was handled? Do you feel confident the way the tour was able to extricate this person?

IGA SWIATEK: Honestly, I haven’t seen it because I was doing recovery yesterday. I didn’t watch their match. I know the WTA banned this person from going on-site anywhere on any tournament. So I guess the reaction was pretty solid.

I like that because it’s WTA’s kind of responsibility to keep us safe, for that environment to be safe for us. I guess with their help it’s fine. But, yeah, it’s hard probably to avoid these situations before.

Q. The extent of what the tour does, do they educate players on what to look for and how to report these types of behaviors?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, I mean, it’s important to report and to remember that we have the WTA kind of on our side. But I guess I don’t know, like a player will know when it’s too much. Everybody has a different limit.

I don’t know, how would you educate that?

Q. If you’re seeing a fan at different tournaments repeatedly in a short period of time…

IGA SWIATEK: These are the signs that everybody will see anyway. But there are fans that are going on every tournament but are not dangerous, so…

I guess it depends on their behavior.

Q. In terms of social media, how conscious are you of when you post something or someone from your team posts something so people don’t know exactly where you are? Do you put a lot of thought into not saying, I’m here now? Is that something you learned along the way?

IGA SWIATEK: I mean, I try for my Instagram feed to be up to date and everything. But yeah, sometimes we are posting one day after I left someplace or just after, I don’t know, the event and everything.

On the other hand it’s kind of natural anyway because then you have photos to post. I guess it’s all about the timing and also if I stay in a nice hotel and I know that I’m going to be there for a longer time, it’s also nice for this hotel to be ready to accommodate us in a way that it’s safe, getting some, I don’t know, different entrance, yeah.

But it all depends on the situation, I guess. Usually people are helpful with that because they understand that I’m in a situation where I’m kind of exposed.

Q. In Dubai in general, because you spend a bit of time here, you train here, do you generally feel it’s a safe city?

IGA SWIATEK: Yeah.

Q. You played Doha and here in Dubai. Do you feel a difference on the surface?

IGA SWIATEK: I feel, yeah, a difference in the surface. I feel like on the center court here the ball is bouncing higher. Also it’s hotter, so maybe it’s because of that.

So yeah, there is a bit of difference. For sure I need some time to adjust.

Q. Yesterday because of the rain, do you feel the difference between yesterday and today?

IGA SWIATEK: Yes, yes, for sure. Because of the temperature and the sun. But honestly, I liked both. It’s not like any of this situation was a problem for me.

Yeah, but for sure the difference between surfaces was much, much bigger couple of years ago. Like, I remember going from Doha to Dubai, and here it was so fast that it was just impossible to adjust. So I’m glad that WTA made it consistent kind of with the speed of the surface.

But the only thing I don’t understand this year is that we’re not playing with Australian Open ball. For some years in the past we had the Australian Open balls since beginning of the year till Indian Wells. In Indian Wells we switched. That was kind of obvious. But now, yeah, they changed the balls here and in Doha, which I don’t understand. So yeah…

Q. I’ve been asking players who would they pick from their rivals to coach them, kind of like a Murray-Djokovic situation. Who would you pick?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, Petkovic is not playing anymore. I heard she has a really great eye. I always liked her. I think we would get along.

I don’t know. Maybe Aryna. She’s older than me, so maybe she’s going to finish earlier. Yeah, that would be funny.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports