The young Pole won last year’s French Open and now faces increased pressure and expectation in Melbourne
As Iga Swiatek settles into her first press conference at the Australian Open, one of the early, simple questions posed to her elicits a sigh. On the verge of her first grand slam since winning the French Open aged just 19, when she dropped just 28 games and mercilessly hammered Simona Halep en route, a journalist wonders what the biggest surprise was of being a grand slam champion. “The biggest surprise actually isn’t really positive,” says Swiatek.
“I was always imagining that when I’m going to win a grand slam, I’m going to just enjoy it for the rest of my life, it’s going to be rainbows everywhere, I’m going to be some kind of at peace in myself that I already won a grand slam and I reached my goal.
