"You kind of need to suffer a little bit out there to beat her": Krejcikova on secret to beating Swiatek

Barbora Krejcikova has beaten Iga Swiatek twice in the past two times they played and that's far better than most other players who took on Swiatek.

She defeated her in Ostrava last year and defeated her once more in Abu Dhabi. Both matches were finals so the stakes were high with a chance to win the trophy. Both matches were won by Krejcikova which is incredible considering how well Swiatek has played in the past two years. Why does she have so much success?

Well it's a mix of showing up and rising to the challenge:

"When I’m going to play the biggest challenge that I can get and I feel very motivated by the player that I’m playing. When I played these two times with Iga, there are so many long rallies and she just doesn’t give you any single points for free. So you kind of need to suffer a little bit out there to beat her. And I don’t mind any of these things."

She's back to winning way this year after battling injuries for much of last year. Ranked number 12 right now, Krejcikova believes she is capable of returning back to the top 10, a place she belongs to:

"Why not? I’m thinking: I have good results. I’m trying to be as consistent as I can. I work really hard, every single day. So, I mean, why not? Like, why not? I’m really playing with all the best [players] and I’m playing really close matches with them. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. So I really don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t be in the top 10 and why I shouldn’t play with them. All year long."