“They think, 'Why not me?”: Navratilova believes Swiatek slump will inspire confidence

Martina Navratilova believes that Swiatek's recent results will give more confidence to other players to approach matches against her with more courage.

Swiatek has been pretty good this year but not quite as good as last year. She's been beaten a couple of times already and although those losses came against the top players on the tour, Navratilova believes that they will nonetheless inspire other players to face Swiatek with more courage than before:

"She's had a few hiccups this year, and it maybe hasn't gone as well as she would've liked. The players feel that. It's that locker room confidence they get when they see other players beating Iga or giving her trouble, they think, 'Why not me?' So now it's going to be difficult for her."

Even so, the former player still believes that she's the player to beat because she is without question still number one in the world. A few results don't change that because she's been that over a year and it wasn't handed to her as some like to suggest:

"The way Swiatek imposed herself on the game, there was a clear No. 1. We got a true champion here, not just somebody that got there by default because Iga really earned that position."