By Richard Pagliaro | Tennis Now | Saturday April 2, 2022
Miami—Iga Swiatek's spectacular start to the season is transformative.
The new world No. 1 cites successful transition skills as the key to her career-best 17-match winning streak.
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Swiatek, who streaked through seven straight games sweeping former No. 1 Naomi Osaka in today's Miami Open final, said she knew she was capable of delivering this lofty level of tennis. Because she's done it repeatedly on the practice court.
Practice makes perfect. For Swiatek, practice fires fearlessness.
"I feel like I could play that kind of tennis last year on my practices and on my trainings back home, but I always wanted to convert that into my game on matches," Swiatek told the media in Miami. "Basically last season it was pretty tough to do that for me, but so this season it clicked. It's not like these shots are surprising, because I know what I can do.
"Except Roland Garros and maybe, I don't know, few matches in Rome or in Adelaide, I didn't have a chance to show my full, you know, potential. I feel like I am doing that right now."
The 20-year-old Pole joins Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka as the fourth woman to sweep the Sunshine Double—winning Indian Wells and Miami in succession—and cites the fact she's swinging as freely as she does on the practice court as a key.
"The thing is I feel like I'm playing similar kind of tennis I am on practices, and on practices I was always, you know, playing like more fearless," Swiatek said. "But I don't know honestly where is like the full potential thing. I don't know where is the limit. For sure there is a lot to improve. I mean, I don't want to tell the details, because, you know...
"But my coach has a plan for me, for sure, and I still have some shots where I could feel more comfortable on court. So we are going to continue working. Tennis is improving all the time, and players are working out in the gym, as well, and we have to keep going."
Photo credit: Michael Reaves/Getty