“The fire in her eyes”: Swiatek’s psychologist narrates her road to success

World number one Iga Swiatek’s sports psychologist, Daria Abramowicz, has revealed that she knew instantly about her special talent. The 22-year-old is already regarded as one of the greatest women’s tennis players in the singles category, having already won as many as five Grand Slam titles.

Swiatek’s sports psychologist Abramowicz was recently quoted in a report, explaining how she instantly knew that the Polish tennis star was a ‘special talent’. “Oh the first minute I met her! I saw the fire,” she said. “She was all over the place, coming back from school, eating in a rush, trying to do everything at the same time and I was like ‘oh my god what’s going on?’ And then she went on court, locked in, and I was like ‘now we’re talking’.”

Abramowicz went on to explain that her biggest challenge has been ensuring that Swiatek lives up to her potential. She thought that the most exciting thing is that the current world number one still has a lot of room for improvement.

“The challenging thing was to meet her potential,” she stated. “Such a big potential but with not a lot of resources so there was an amount of work to be done. It’s still fascinating because she’s still not a complete tennis player, not a complete athlete, and not a fully mature human being because she’s just 23 as well. It’s fascinating to keep working with Iga.”

Swiatek recently won her fourth French Open title after beating Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the final in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1. The Warsaw-born star is having a fabulous season. She started the campaign on a rather disappointing note, however, as she was knocked out of the Australian Open after losing to Linda Noskova in the third round 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Since then, however, she has been unstoppable. Swiatek won as many as four WTA titles before arriving at the French Open. She won her first title this year after beating Elena Rybakina in the final with a score of 7-6, 6-2. She lifted the WTA 1000 title at Indian Wells after beating Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-0. She then went on to win the Madrid Open after beating current world number two Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 4-6, 7-6.

Swiatek then won the Rome Open after once again beating Sabalenka in the final in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.