THE MODERATOR: We'll get started. Iga, welcome back to Toronto. How have your preparations been going, and what's the energy coming into the event?
IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure I'm happy to be here. Last time I've been here was 2022, so it feels like I'm coming kind of to a new place a little bit, because most of the places on tour I know pretty well, but this one I don't. So I'm excited and I'm happy to be here. Yeah, I had a good time in Warsaw preparing for the hard court season and we're continuing this here.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. Wondering, after your Wimbledon, how much time did you take off away from the court to sort of regroup before you went back out to train, and what did you do in that time just to sort of take a little bit of a break maybe from it?
IGA SWIATEK: It was seven or eight days. I was in Greece with my friends, so it was quite fun, and for sure, you know, some time without even thinking about tennis. I just followed Hubert Hurkacz at Wimbledon, but I wasn't watching anything. It was a good time to, yeah, just relax and live a different life than the tennis one.
Q. You made the US Open mixed doubles finals last year with Casper. I'm curious, how much pride did you guys take as being the best singles players to perform in that tournament, and how much, like, did it even help you in your US Open prep for the singles competition?
IGA SWIATEK: I think it's a nice change because it's a different kind of energy on the court, and it can give you, yeah, like some freshness, I would say. Even though it was right after Cincinnati, I still was kind of tired, I had to play these matches, but it was so exciting that it was, like, fully pleasure, even though physically might have been, you know, maybe a little bit better if I had some days off. I think it really helped me to, yeah, have that freshness and to mix it up a little bit. Because we're playing the same kind of tournaments throughout the whole year and this was much different, and so much fun playing with Casper as well. I don't think it had anything to do with the preparation for the singles tournament, but it was nice to, yeah, play some more volleys, play a different kind of game, you know, genetically and tactically, and so I was really happy that we have this opportunity. Also it was a great show and fans loved it, so you also take energy from that.
Q. Players today are dealing with rain delays. In your career when you've had to deal with rain delays, how have you approached that, especially when the rain delays get very long?
IGA SWIATEK: Well, it's good not to like constantly be on your toes and, like, if you know you're not going to play in next two, three hours, you need to spend this time relaxing. If you're constantly going to have that adrenaline before the match, you know, it's probably going to burn out before you start. So you need to just keep your energy on the proper level and then get pumped up right before. Yeah, but, honestly, we get them less and less because most of the stadiums now are covered anyway. Unless you play on the outside courts, then probably you get that more. So it's not like I had them a lot, but I remember the longest one was actually also in Canada, in Montreal when I played Muchova, I think our match was stopped twice and the breaks were long. Yeah, I never had a problem with that. Like, it can ruin the momentum, but with an amount of intensity and focus, you can change it to your advantage.
Q. I wonder what it's like as a professional athlete to have a social media presence these days. Like, what's the good and the bad that you see?
IGA SWIATEK: Well, I think when I was younger, social media was like nicer sometimes, you know, it was a way to actually connect with people. Now it's a platform where you kind of share your life and you show what you're doing, but it's so, like, intense. So, yeah, I would say intense. Sometimes it's hard to, yeah, have that actually more, like, intimate moments with some of your friends or some fans, because it's more and more, you know, so it becomes like less, I don't know, exclusive or something. I think it depends how you spend your time on social media, yeah, because if you post and if you try to have these little interactions, I think it can give you some nice moments. But if you go to your inbox where the bots are writing bad stuff, you know, you're not going to have fun. So, it depends. You need to filter yourself, what you want to do there. Sometimes it might be tricky because the algorithm will show you some stuff that you don't want to see about yourself, so you just need to be good at like ignoring that and not letting that get to you.
Q. You were the special guest at the Rafa Nadal Academy when Alex Eala had her graduation there. I don't know, like, what do you remember about that? Like, were you guys able to talk, obviously besides taking part in the ceremony?
IGA SWIATEK: We didn't know each other that much. I remember I also practiced with her on Miami Open when she wasn't on tour yet I think, so that was the first time we met. Then the second time was at Rafa's. But I was really focused on not ruining my speech, so that was my main goal. I was a bit stressed, I got to say, because it's not like I give speeches a lot of times. Mostly I'm doing interviews, but speech is a different kind of thing, so I was focused on that. I had a chance to talk to Rafa and to his family a little bit, which was great. But Alex was also, you know, just graduating, so she got her own experience. I was already kind of past that, you know, I finished high school few years ago. So I felt like, yeah, I should focus on my job, she should focus on graduating and enjoying the last day in school, basically. It was really fun. I remember I was surprised that I'm almost her age, but I was giving a speech on a graduation, you know, it felt quite weird.
Q. There's so much depth these days on the WTA, so much talent in the top-10, but then you've got the younger players coming up, like Alex Eala, for example. Does it feel, as your career goes along, that it becomes tougher, that the competition becomes tougher to deal with on the women's tour these days?
IGA SWIATEK: No, because you always have these young players coming up, you know, it's just that your perspective might change because you're not so young anymore. You're not like a rookie or already like established player, so the vibe of how you feel might change. But I think the tour overall will always have that mix of more experienced players and, you know, younger players. It's normal, and it's the circle of life. So I think the tour kind of lives in a circle, but for sure your situation changes.
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