Iga Swiatek tempers expectations in Cincinnati citing conditions, Olympic turnaround

CINCINNATI—Iga Swiatek is used to being the favorite at most tournaments she plays but the world No. 1 is tempering expectations ahead of her first hard-court match since March.

“We’re taking it easy, doing everything step by step,” she said to open her Media Day press conference at the Cincinnati Open. “For sure, it’s not going to be perfect from the beginning but I had a couple days to really get used to the surface, so I’m trying to do the best job possible every day and entering the court next day knowing I can do something better.

“I’m going to treat it as a practice tournament,” she added. “Not in a way that I don’t care but in the way that I want to implement all the stuff I’ve been practiced, and I think that’s the best approach for me.”

Swiatek last played on hard courts at the Miami Open, where she lost in the fourth round to Ekaterina Alexandrova, and the reigning Roland Garros champion, who reached the semifinals at this tournament in 2023, is bracing herself for even quicker conditions in Cincinnati given its shift back to Regular Duty Wilson tennis balls.

“Last year we tested Wilson’s Heavy Duty and this year we came back to Regular Duty,” explained the top seed, who will open against either Ajla Tomljanovic or a qualifier/lucky loser. “We haven’t played with these particular balls in, like, two years, which is just another thing to think about when you go out on court for us players because we’re obviously thinking about these things.

“They’re lighter, they lose their heaviness after a while because the hair from the ball is gone after about 15 minutes,” she continued. “I played with these in 2022, and so I need to kind of remember how it was. With all the changes with the surface and the balls, you can’t just expect to make constant progress. You need to focus on adjusting, and that’s what I’ll do now.”

I was happy I could deal with all this pressure and still get a medal. It wasn’t like a normal tournament for sure. Iga Swiatek

Reminded that she won the 2022 US Open with Regular Duty tennis balls, the 23-year-old gave an exasperated smile.

“I don’t know how I did that!” she laughed. “I remember but it was pretty crazy. At the beginning of the tournament would you have expected that? I can’t explain!”

Swiatek opted out of the National Bank Open in Toronto, which kicked off the US Open swing, citing fatigue from the Paris Olympic Games, where she shook off a shock semifinal defeat to eventual champion Zheng Qinwen to win a bronze medal.

“I was happy I could deal with all this pressure and still get a medal. It wasn’t like a normal tournament for sure,” said Swiatek.

After spending time supporting her fellow athletes around the Games, the Pole felt refreshed ahead of the final stretch of the season.

“I felt like after the Olympics I needed to reset and just focus on getting my technique back and grinding on court. Here is the perfect place to do it…I think I got into a different rhythm here, where we’re only focused on the practices that I have and that’s it. I think that kind of helps me to rest off the court. I’m not expecting to have a break in the middle of the season, so I’m not thinking like that at all!”

Though her best results in the last 18 months have come on clay, might Swiatek use the space created by (relatively) lower expectation to rediscover the sort of hard-court form that once took her to the US Open title?