Swiatek on how Barty impacted her career: "My main goal was to learn how to play against her a little bit"

Iga Swiatek will be making her return to Australia soon and she spoke about Barty and how she impacted her career ahead of that.

They shared the court together last year in Adelaide with Barty winning that match. They almost faced each other in the Australian Open final as Swiatek was beaten by Danielle Collins before she could make her way to the final where Barty awaited. The meeting in Adelaide was meaningful for Swiatek:

“I think we all need somebody who is going to push ourselves to the limit. It gave me a lot of motivation last season when I played against Ash (Barty) in Adelaide. For the next couple of months, before she retired, my main goal was to learn how to play against her a little bit and maybe be able to beat her."

She added:

"For sure rivalry is welcome, I can totally take a lot from that. So I think it’s great that we have so many people we can compete against.

We never saw the Barty - Swiatek rivalry on the court and it's a shame because it would have been a pretty good one. In Barty's absence, Swiatek was able to dominate the WTA Tour as she finished as the number one player in the world.