Iga Swiatek has admitted that she found the rain delays at the National Bank Canadian Open (Omnium Banque Nationale) in Montreal 'tough' to deal with, leading her to suffer from fatigue.

World No. 1 Swiatek bowed out of the WTA 1000 event in her semi-final match against Jessica Pegula. The American won the first set, but Swiatek managed to claw back the second by winning the tiebreak. Nevertheless, it was Pegula who emerged victorious 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-4.

Speaking after the match, Swiatek said that she had struggled to get sufficient rest at the tournament due to frequent delays causing several matches to be postponed and played late into the night.

The four-time Grand Slam champion confessed that she hadn't been sleeping well at the tournament.

"Well, for sure physically it was a tough tournament," she said.

"Especially that match against Karolina being delayed a couple of times, you know. I didn’t really have time during the tournament to actually rest for a while and do nothing. So it wasn’t easy, but it didn’t change the fact that I just fought until the end."

"And this match today for sure physically was tough, like having only 16 hours to recover," the Polish player added.

"For sure I’m not an easy sleeper, so it’s hard to sleep after such a match as yesterday with a lot of adrenaline, you know. You kind of have to deal with that. It’s the life of a tennis player. So I did what I could."

However, Swiatek also said that it wasn't an excuse for losing the match.

"For sure I wasn’t fresh today, but usually physicality is not something that is the reason why I’m losing, so I wouldn’t say it had such a big influence."