Iga Swiatek recommends Babel by R.F. Kuang, lists all-time favorite books in Dubai

DUBAI—Everyone knows Iga Swiatek loves to read.

Which made her initial defensiveness at a question about one of her favorite hobbies utterly baffling.

“How do you know that?” she asked after a 6-0, 6-3 win over Victoria Azarenka at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. “What do you mean?”

It soon became clear the world No. 2 misheard the question, thinking she had been asked about eating, not reading.

“Oh, my God!” she exclaimed with a laugh. “I was so confused.”

Read more: Swiatek challenges fans to #ReadWithIga on World Book Day

Back on track, the five-time Grand Slam champion didn’t disappoint, revealing where she gets her best book recommendations.

“Mostly we have some friends that are also, like, journalists in Poland, knowing a lot of books,” Swiatek explained. “I know people that read books and they recommend me stuff.

“Also on tour, there are some girls that also read,” she added. “Actually, like, in the past month I was able to ask them for recommendations.”

One player pointed her toward Babel, a popular speculative fiction novel written by R.F. Kuang, but Swiatek was hesitant to blow up her spot.

“I don't want to spoil it because I still need to ask her for some more!” she said. “I don't want her to get pressure.”

Reading became the hot topic of the press conference, Swiatek revealing her preference for picking up lighter books between matches.

I would love to have time to read something that is more complicated, I don't know, philosophical…I'm a person that over-thinks stuff. So if I read something that is too hard, you can be sure I'm going to have some sleepless nights. I need to avoid that during the tournament, for sure. Iga Swiatek

“I would love to have time to read something that is more complicated, I don't know, philosophical…I'm a person that over-thinks stuff,” she said. “If I read something that is too hard, you can be sure I'm going to have some sleepless nights. I need to avoid that during the tournament, for sure.”

She went on to list her all-time favorite books like something of a multi-course meal.

“I was always fan of Ken Follett. I still am. I need to eat…” she joked. “I mean, read his books again because I read them when I was 16. I need to see if I still love them. I'm sure I do, and when I was a teenager, my favorite books were The Hunger Games series. I would recommend these for, like, young adults.

“I mean, there are many,” she added with a sigh. “But now my mind is blank. Lessons in Chemistry was nice. I'll make a list. I'll post it somewhere. But now, sorry, I'm thinking too much about tennis!”

Get your beach reads ready: the #ReadWithIga Book Club is now in session.