"The tricky conditions helped me": Iga Swiatek shares thoughts on 2023 WTA Finals victory

Iga Swiatek opened up on the factors that contributed to her success at the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun.

The 22-year-old had a hugely successful run at the 2023 WTA Finals, defeating each of her Group Stage opponents and ousting Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets to set up a clash with World No. 5 Jessica Pegula in the final.

Once there, Swiatek dominated the match, winning 6-1, 6-0 to re-claim World No. 1 and consolidate her place as year-end No. 1 for the second consecutive year. After the match, the Polish player analyzed what she did right and shared her thoughts on various factors that helped her to succeed.

"I’m just really happy and super proud of myself," Swiatek said, "This week has been not easy, but I feel like it’s a kind of a reflection of the whole season. So I’m just happy that I could cope with everything well, and I kind of used my experience from all these years to perform well here."

Moreover, the 22-year-old revealed how the difficult conditions at the Estadio Paradisus forced her to be more focused on her game. During the tournament, several players including Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina criticized the unsafe court conditions and attributed the drop in quality to bad ball bounces. Poor weather then annoyed players and fans further as it delayed the final by a day.

"The conditions that were kind of tricky also helped me to just, you know, focus on adjust my footwork, my shots … that kept me busy from thinking about all of that," Swiatek added, "So I think today was … just being narrow with your head, only thinking about the right stuff."

In terms of mindset, Swiatek also shared how defending World No. 1, which she initially lost after being defeated in the fourth round of the US Open by Jelena Ostapenko, affected her performance at previous tournaments.

"It played [in my mind] a lot in the US Open and the tournaments before but I kind of learned my lesson. This time I didn’t want it to have an impact on me … it’s hard not to think about stuff like that but actually when I went on court I knew that I had to focus on different things," she continued.

Finally, Swiatek expressed her gratitude to her team for helping throughout the season.

"The team that’s been with me the whole season, we had many ups and downs. This is for sure an up. We will for sure have many more if we keep working like that," she said.