Iga Swiatek found defending World No.1 status ‘too overwhelming’, claims it played a part in her early exit from US Open

Iga Swiatek had lost her World No.1 status for a few weeks after her early exit from the 2023 US Open.

Iga Swiatek found defending World No.1 status ‘too overwhelming’, claims it played a part in her early exit from US Open

Iga Swiatek (Image via Tennis.com)

Iga Swiatek has talked about the pressure of defending her World No.1 status and has revealed that she found it a bit overwhelming. The Pole ace who reclaimed her World No.1 throne within three months of losing it to Aryna Sabalenka ended the 2023 season as the top-ranked player. However, Swiatek faced the agony of losing the World No.1 status.

Swiatek’s reign at the top for 75 consecutive weeks ended when Sabalenka dethroned her to take the top spot in the WTA rankings. This came as a result of Swiatek’s early exit from the year’s last Grand Slam and Sabalenka reaching the final. The 22-year-old was devastated, but she did not let it affect her for the remainder of the season.

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Swiatek took a short break after the US Open exit and came back to reach the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Open, a title win in China, and eventually her maiden WTA title. However, as the Polish ace has revealed, it was not easy for her to not let the thoughts of defending her World No.1 status affect her. In fact, it bothered her a lot.

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Hailing Sabalenka by saying that the Belarusian deserved to end the season as the top-ranked player, Iga Swiatek revealed that she tried to focus on other things as the constant thoughts of defending the status became a bit too overwhelming for her.

I just preferred to focus on other things, because the pressure related to the No. 1 spot was a bit overwhelming in the middle of the season.
Iga Swiatek said to Eurosport.

Iga Swiatek talks about the importance of looking away

While flagging the pressure of defending the World No.1 status as the reason behind her early exit from the 2023 US Open, Swiatek talked about the importance of looking away. The 22-year-old said that after bowing out from the last Grand Slam of the year, she knew what changes she needed to make.

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Iga Swiatek (Image via China Open X)

She said that she understood the need to change her attitude and become a player who did not think about these things (rankings and other off-the-court things).

For this reason, I didn't play very freely until the US Open, and then I knew that I just had to change this attitude and approach the next tournaments differently, just be a different player who didn't focus on all those things. Although I always try to do it, it doesn't always work out.

This change in approach worked wonders for Swiatek as she looked in the zone whenever she took the court after the US Open. The 22-year-old played like a real World No.1 in the tournaments on her comeback and it paid off well with Swiatek regaining the top spot in the rankings and ending the year as the top-ranked player.

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