“Getting 10 days without the racket is not enough time to reset”: Iga Swiatek highlights the physical cost of an 11-month season

World No. 2 Iga Swiatek continues her steady run at the Australian Open after defeating Czech Marie Bouzkova 6-2, 6-3 in the second round. The six-time Grand Slam champion delivered a consistent performance, firing 31 winners compared to just three from her opponent, and converting five breaks from eight opportunities throughout the match.

Following the victory, the Polish player addressed the media in her post-match press conference, where she analysed her strengths in overcoming Bouzkova. “I think against her you always need to be solid and really disciplined, because you need to finish the rally quite a few times,” commented the Pole. “She’s good in defence, so I think that’s what I did today, and I put pressure from the beginning for sure.”

The former world No. 1 has not fully convinced in Melbourne, where her best results remain semifinal appearances in 2022 and 2025 — although she has suffered several early exits over the years. Even so, this marks the seventh consecutive time she has reached the Round of 32, showing that she is capable of producing a high level from the very start of the season.

One of the topics Swiatek addressed was the short off-season. Her last appearance of 2025 came at the Billie Jean King Cup play-offs, between November 14 and 16, before returning to competition at the United Cup on December 2. With just six weeks away from competition — much of which is dedicated to preparing for the new season — Swiatek acknowledged that the lack of rest time can affect players’ performances when arriving in Australia so early in the year.

“Physically I feel good, but for sure the schedule is packed. There’s not much time to reset completely,” commented the 24-year-old. “ It’s kind of impossible, so it feels like there’s no real beginning of the season and no real end of the season, because honestly, for people who work physically for 11 months basically, getting 10 days without the racket is not enough time to reset."

For four days you’re still thinking about the last season, and then the last days you already think about the preparation for the next one. So for sure he’s right that the schedule is packed and the season is getting longer and longer, but I guess everybody already knows that.”

One of the elements Swiatek highlighted on this occasion was her repeated movement to the net, winning 14 of 18 points when approaching it — something not particularly common for the Pole, who usually dominates from the baseline. “Yeah, I mean at some point I had to go to the net and finish the points there, because she’s good in defence,” Swiatek explained. “She’s going to bring the next ball back, and she’s running pretty far from the baseline as well, so it’s not easy to hit a winner."

I’m happy that I went to the net. We kind of knew that it was going to be necessary at some point, so I practiced a little bit more of that yesterday, and I felt confident there.”

According to Swiatek, during her time away from competition she has found it difficult to fully rest or disconnect, considering the commitments she has off the court. “The thing is that when you’re playing well, you also have a lot of stuff to do off the court,” she said. “It’s not like you’re just a tennis player. If you’re going to play tennis well, you’re going to be kind of a celebrity — bigger or smaller, you can choose that — but there’s a lot of stuff to do as well.

“It’s not like we finish a tournament and that’s it. So I guess you need to find balance with that as well, because you also want to be fulfilled in that part of your career, and then obviously find proper time to rest and have good time off.”

“For example, sometimes when I come back to Warsaw, it’s not like I have a break after the tournament, because I have so much stuff to do that I just don’t do during tournaments and really need to catch up on,” the world No. 2 added. “But I guess this is what you need to do if you want to succeed at this level. It’s not easy, but it’s necessary.”

Swiatek continues to demonstrate her consistency at Grand Slam tournaments, having reached at least the third round in every appearance since 2020. She has now made 24 consecutive major appearances in which she has reached at least the Round of 32. The last time she exited earlier was at the 2019 US Open, when she was just 18 years old and still ranked outside the top 50.

The Pole’s consistency has been evident, having won a total of 25 titles so far, including 11 WTA 1000 trophies and six Grand Slam titles. Between tournaments, however, finding time to rest has been particularly challenging. “Actually, it’s my goal for this year to maybe go somewhere and just rest and not do anything, because I tend to do other stuff — of course, obligations. There are things that need to be done, but I also take quite a lot on my shoulders.”

“So my goal for this season is to unplug a bit better and hopefully have more energy until the end of the season. I have to say that because of COVID, I didn’t really get the experience of playing full seasons. I think in 2024 — no, 2023 — I couldn’t as well. Last year was kind of the first one. Before that I was either injured in 2019 or COVID started in 2020, so last year was the first season that I played from the beginning until the end. It’s for sure something to learn from.”