London: Iga Swiatek used the word surreal more times than she did interviews on a sun-kissed summer evening in London.The 24-year-old, who completed a demolition job in the Wimbledon final in a shade under an hour, was engaged in media interactions some five-and-a-half hours after she powered to victory. She did 20 television interviews. It was well past 9 pm local time when she joined a select group of international journalists in one of the small interview rooms at SW19. Fresh was her expression. You’d think she had just had her morning coffee.The Pole, who lost in the semifinals of her beloved Roland Garros last month, started training on the grass courts of Mallorca five days later. Backed by her coach of the last eight months Wim Fissette, she arrived in the German town of Bad Homburg for a WTA 250 to get some match experience on a surface that has been a bit of a puzzle to her.
“I’m happy with the whole process. From the first day we stepped on a grass court, we did everything for it to go in that direction (winning Wimbledon), without expecting it, just working really hard,” said Swiatek, who is back at No.3.Though Swiatek refused to rate her six Grand Slam triumphs, out of respect for the tournaments, the 24-year-old had gone through some testing times in the last 12 months.The Pole, who didn’t reach a final for a year after her 2024 French Open victory, saw her ranking dip to No.8, her lowest since March 2022. A month after her fourth triumph at Roland Garros she arrived in Paris as favourite for the Olympic gold, but lost in the semifinals. She only made one more semifinal in her next three events before wrapping up her 2024 season.In November, it was announced that Swiatek had tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ). She was subsequently given a one-month ban after the International Tennis Integrity Agency accepted the result was caused by contamination.Winning they say smooths most things over, but Swiatek didn’t have that luxury to fall back on. The Pole changed coaches in November last year, signing Belgian Fissette after a successful three-year run with countryman Tomasz Wiktorowski.“Unfortunately how the Polish media treated me and my team wasn’t really pleasant,” Swiatek said of the last few months.The Wimbledon title gives Swiatek shelter from the rain, but she knows that there’s a take-away from her tough days. “The whole year was kind of crazy,” she said. It has been a long, rocky road back for the six-time Major winner.
