Iga Swiatek previewed her semifinal match at the WTA Finals against Aryna Sabalenka and compared it to her loss last year.
The Polish tennis player has been showcasing great form since losing the world No. 1 ranking to Sabalenka after failing to defend her US Open title, and the Belarusian reached the final.
Swiatek has won 9 consecutive matches, including her performance at the WTA 1000 China Open and her victories in the round-robin stage of the Finals. She enters the match against Sabalenka with a chance to finish the year as the world No. 1. To achieve this, she must first stop the world No. 1 who advanced to the semifinals as the second-placed player in her group.
Swiatek addressed the challenging conditions that the players have experienced in Cancun, citing constant match interruptions due to rain and strong winds that have made it difficult to control the ball. She anticipated a tough encounter.
“I’ll see what the conditions are gonna be like. Against Aryna, it’s never easy. I’m just gonna do my best & focus on myself & what I wanna do on court. We usually have these matches that are exciting & really tough, both mentally & physically,” she said.
“I’m just gonna be ready & see what the wind is gonna look like & what’s gonna happen on court… This time I will use my experience of being in the WTA Finals. Last year when I got out of my group, it felt like I was almost at the end of the tournament & I felt really proud of myself that I just got out of the group,” Swiatek added.
“This year it feels like now it’s kind of starting. So it’s a bit different & I for sure learned my lesson. The conditions here are so tough that usually you just have to focus on that. Tactically, I’m gonna prepare. We know our games. We know kind of what it will look like. But we also have to figure something out because we’ve played each other so many times. So we’ll see,” world No. 2 concluded.
Swiatek & Sabalenka will face each other in the WTA Finals semifinal. When Iga lost at the US Open, Aryna said she wished they had the chance to play for the #1 ranking. Now, she’ll have that chance If Aryna wins, she stays #1 Iga will need to win the tournament Who wins?
