"They almost killed me in practices" - jokes Iga Swiatek on preparing at Nadal Tennis Academy ahead of Rome

Iga Swiatek is the defending champion in Rome this year after a double bagel in the final last year against Pliskova and she trained at the Nadal Tennis Academy ahead of it.

Swiatek was in Madrid in the days leading up to the event but elected to skip the event due to a minor shoulder injury. She explained that she was perfectly fine but she wanted to rest up before the upcoming weeks and speaking ahead of the Rome Masters, she admitted she did rest but getting back to practice was not that pleasant.

She used the Nadal Tennis Academy facilities on Mallorca and on that, she said:

"It’s pretty weird because I really rested, then they almost killed me on the practices, hopefully, it’s going to give me more power and I’m going to be more ready to play well next tournaments.”

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On the transition to clay she said:

“The tournaments that I played this year have shown me that I can play better tennis on hard courts, right now the transition that I have to do is clay, it’s pretty different because usually it was like, ‘Whoa, clay, finally I can play well.’ Right now it’s a little bit different because I feel like my level was high anyway – it didn’t strike me the same this year."

She proved her level once more in Stuttgart winning the first clay even she played in the year so summing up her goals ahead of the French Open she said:

“Last year I feel I was still trying to find some consistency in the wins that I had and also confirmation that Roland Garros wasn’t just a one off tournament. I feel like I found that and I feel like I can move forward and just focus on my next goals."