Iga Swiatek’s rise in women’s tennis has attracted a lot of unwanted attention and expectations – especially in her native Poland – but the world No. 1 is slowly but surely learning to deal with the pressure .
At just 22 years old, Swiatek has won 19 WTA titles, including four Grand Slams, and has spent 99 weeks in the top 10 at the top of the WTA rankings.
Her dominance over the past two years has also increased the pressure on her to keep delivering, with some believing she should win every fight she enters.
As if all this pressure wasn’t enough, Swiatek also had to deal with internet trolls.
So how does she handle it all?
“It’s easy for me to cut out all that stuff, like scream this stuff, like social media or everything else,” Pole said. “I try not to go out there too much during the game. I just post my content and don’t really post on Twitter or Instagram.
“I actually had to force myself to do it at first. Now I feel very comfortable. There are actually a lot of things online that I really don’t understand. It’s weird and unreal. It’s better for me to stay away from it.
“As far as expectations from the outside, that’s it. But I have my expectations. I would say if I feel like I’m not managing expectations well overall, it’s because I’m not managing my expectations. Those coming from the outside , they really don’t matter that much because I do a lot of work managing it rather than really caring about them.
“It still hits you sometimes, especially when you’re tired and you know you’ve tried your best, but people are still looking at you. They don’t know the full truth and they don’t know what’s going on off the field. Sometimes it’s not easy.
“I already kind of understand how the world works, and I don’t think it’s going to change. Of course, it would be nice if people remembered that we are still human beings. Yes, it’s impossible to win every game.”
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Standing at the top, witnessing it all, accomplishing it all, means that if Swiatek were to publish an autobiography about the past few years, she would have a lot to write about her destiny and life on and off the court.
“The book is probably 600 pages long, so … it’s hard to answer that question,” she said.
“I just wanted to write down everything about how proud I am of my progress and how I’ve dealt with all the different challenges in my career.
“Everything happens so fast. Sometimes I need to catch up with my life, keep a balance and be able to fulfill all these obligations well and be in good shape on the pitch.
“I just want to say how proud I am of it. I think I did a really good job of it.”