"Not defending Roland Garros would not be a disappointment" - says Swiatek on upcoming Grand Slam

Iga Swiatek is approaching her first Grand Slam title defence at the Roland Garros having won the French Open in 2020.

Winning the 2020 Roland Garros was a lifelong dream for Iga Swiatek who bulldozed her way through everyone en route to the trophy. Now, not even a full year later she is approaching her first grand slam title defence. It's something many players have struggled with in the past. Swiatek is keen to not repeat those mistakes:

“I always try to learn from what other girls experienced. And there are many players that have some kind of regression after winning their first Grand Slam, so I always thought that `Hey, try to be different. Just work and just focus on not doing the same mistakes.'"

Swiatek had a very inspiring run at the Rome Master's earlier in the month saving two match points in a match where she was down 3-6 0-2. After that match she said:

“Usually in this situation, I was the kind of a person that was kind of giving up mentally. So today, even though I wasn’t feeling perfect on the court, I could manage with everything and win points."

The run eventually ended with a double bagel against Pliskova in the final. It positioned her as one of the favourites for Roland Garros. Asked if anything other than a title would be a disappointment she said:

“No. For sure, not. Look at my results in Grand Slams, mostly I am doing fourth rounds. This is also a good result, as you know, Top 16. So, I don’t have expectations like that."

Swiatek further explained:

“It’s not easy to be a defending champion, so I’m just happy in a situation like that and I can enjoy being there, and just being in Paris because I love playing there. So I’m not worried about that.”