By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday June 13, 2024
Iga Swiatek will take a pass on playing on the Berlin grass next week.
The top-ranked Pole announced that she needs to rest and relax after a grueling run on clay this season that saw her play the maximum amount of matches in Madrid, Rome and Roland-Garros.
"Due to overall physical and mental fatigue after an intense 9 weeks, unfortunately I do need to withdraw from the tournament in Berlin in order to rest and recover," Swiatek said in a statement.
Roland-Garros runner-up Jasmine Paolini also withdrew from Berlin.
Berlin’s draw is stacked nevertheless. According to the ATP, eight of the tour’s Top-10 players will be in attendance.
Swiatek is next scheduled to play at Wimbledon, where she reached the quarterfinals last year.
After winning the title in Paris last Sunday, Swiatek said that playing matches prior to Wimbledon can be helpful, but given how many matches she has played on the clay, rest would be the priority.
“I think to play some matches before Wimbledon is also good, but on the other hand, I played basically almost every match in Stuttgart, Madrid, Rome and [Paris], so we need to take care of my physicality, as well. So we'll see what the plans are.”
Swiatek says that beefing up her serve, regardless of whether she plays a warmup event on grass, should pay dividends for her on the slick Wimbledon lawns this summer.
“I think the biggest progress I can make on grass right now is using my [improved] serves, but also I don't expect a lot,” she said when looking ahead to Wimbledon. “The balls are different. Overall tennis is different on grass. I'll just see and I'll work hard to play better there.”
Thus far this season, Swiatek leads the WTA Tour in percentage of service games won (83.8 percent).