Stefanos Tsitsipas says two-week Masters 1000s are 'a drag'—but Stan Wawrinka remembers when he said otherwise

But thanks to an open mind and some help from her sports psychologist, Daria Abramowicz, Swiatek told reporters at the Mutua Madrid Open this week that she's found an innovative new way to deal with jet lag.

"Sometimes when we are traveling like from Australia through Middle East and then States, it's all fine, but then when we are coming back to Europe, and if we are gonna go from States to China, it's going to be tricky," Swiatek said after beating Bernarda Pera in Sunday's third round.

"Going from west to east ... I need just some help in like Melatonin and stuff. But also Daria is working on having these different lamps that are kind of in a good brightness. So she bough me a lamp and I switch it like on a relax mode."

Abramowicz, present in the Madrid press room, then interjected: "There are more and more protocols about daylight and how to manage a 24-hour cycle and rhythm."

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While the verdict's still out on just how much the new lamp has helped, the process has, at the very least, prompted the always-analytical Swiatek to think about what she can and can't control in her rest and recovery periods.

"This is just a lamp, so I don't know that it's that important, but, well, for sure, traveling from west to east, it's harder, and you just have to kind of be patient," she said. "If I'm practicing, it's much easier to kind of get through it. Sometimes, after US Open, for example, I had like week off, and it was much worse to get back into the rhythm."

Since returning from a rib injury that kept her sidelined for a month, and forced her to miss the Miami Open, Swiatek hasn't missed a beat. She's 6-0 so far on clay with the loss of just one set, and successfully defended her title at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix two weeks ago.

With no jet lag to threaten her preparations after a quick trip from Stuttgart to Madrid, Swiatek has dropped just 10 games in four sets played at the first WTA 1000 event of the clay-court season. She'll face No. 16 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday for a spot in the quarterfinals.