Iga Swi ± tek knows how to overcome fatigue. In Rome, she won three games in 28 hours

“Thank you very much for your support. # Tired” -. And these words worried fans and experts a bit.

Swiatek tired before the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Will he be in time to get back in shape?

The meeting with Kanepi turned out to be the longest in his career – the match lasted three hours and two minutes. He exhausted the player and taking into account that the Polish woman is playing her semi-finals of the Australian Open already on Thursday, we may have concerns whether she will be at the appropriate disposal then.

– Kanepi played great. It seemed to me that many balls would be out and they would hit the court. I know I should run to them, but I didn’t expect them to come in -. In BBC Sport, which gave it after this and the previous game at the Australian Open.

Let Swiatek remember Rome. She won three key matches in 28 hours!

However, there is one case from history that may inspire optimism in the context of Thursday’s game. This is the tournament she won in Rome last May. It was then that her schedule for the final, key part of the tournament got extremely tight.

. A day later, when it seemed that several hours after two demanding matches in the finals, she would be against the wall, Christmas in an unusual style defeated Karolina Pliskova from Czech Republic. She did not let her win even one game and won her third WTA tournament in her career.

Crazy two days of Iga Świątek during the WTA tournament in Rome:

• May 15, 11:05 – Świątek starts the quarter-final match with Elina Switolina
• May 15, 12:43 – Świątek ends the quarter-final match with Elina Switolina
• May 15, 15:55 – Świątek starts the semi-final match with Cori Gauff
• May 15, 17:43 – Świątek ends the semi-final match with Cori Gauff
• May 16, 14:40 – Świątek starts the final match with Karolina Pliskova
• May 16, 15:28 – Świątek ends the final match with Karolina Pliskova

The entire operation of the three matches lasted exactly 28 hours and 23 minutes. Swiatek was on the court for a total of four hours and 33 minutes. It was especially amazing on May 15, when the Polish woman played two matches in just six hours and 38 minutes. Less than a day passed between the start of the semi-finals and the end of the finals. It is almost unbelievable that she was able to play such an excellent final with Pliskova at such a pace.

“She lost the burden of expectations. She went to play it easy”

Interestingly, despite the busy schedule of Świątek, she not only rested. First of all, she was preparing for the next meetings. – Half an hour of warm-up on the court. Before her, a general warm-up, also half an hour. And there must be stimulation for each match. Add to that the activities after the matches – this is stretching and manual work of Maciek Ryszczuk – and you need to add two more hours to these three hours and 24 minutes. Or you can count post-game conversations and other things that are also engaging. Because it is not that right after the match with Switolina Iga could look at the sky and rest – he described after the tournament.

– A man who leaves for the second game of the day, who feels that he has already pumped out two hours of himself, does not have great expectations. Iga really pumped out, because the match with Switolina was not easy. In addition, she played a warm-up and prepared to go out to the court half an hour earlier. So she was at work for about three and a half hours, she had a bit of rest, and with her aching body, which was already a little obstructed, she had to warm up again and go to work again – added the former coach of Świątek.

– Iga then dropped the burden of expectations. She went play it easy. At the end of the semi-finals with Gauff, I was concerned because I could see that after more than five hours of work Iga is really running out of electricity. The result reflected this. With 5: 1 it started to turn a little bit. But then Iga found the tools with which she unlocked. She played smarter, more efficiently and finished the match victorious. She didn’t start to think she was tired and was not going out anymore. And at that point it would be really easy to fixate yourself like that – explained Sierzputowski.

Swiatek did not know that she won to zero. “I didn’t count the points”

However, she was so ready for the game with Świątek that she had already entered a certain routine during the game. Many people argued that she would even win against a Czech player who performs the best in her career. And since the rival fared poorly, it ended with a “bike”, i.e. a 6-0, 6-0 win.

Swiatek was not even aware of it. – Iga asked what the result was and what time it was. So how much did she win and how long the match lasted. When I said it was 6: 0, 6: 0, I heard: “Oh, I thought it was 6: 1, 6: 1. I wasn’t counting the points at all.” This is the level of concentration you want to achieve. I will refer to. Maybe he always knows what the score is, but he always fights the same, no matter what the outcome. The point is to have the same, maximum will to fight all the time. To do my best – said Sierzputowski.

In 32 hours from the quarter-finals to the final? The pressure and the weather will not help Christmas either

Now, also a difficult challenge before Christmas. It will be around 32 hours from the start of the quarter-final against Kanepi (3:15 on Wednesday Polish time) to the beginning of the semi-final against Danielle Collins (at least around 11:00 on Thursday), which is slightly more than the three victories in Rome. It is known, however, that the circumstances are completely different – this is the Grand Slam tournament, only the second in which the Polish woman reaches the semi-finals. However, at them, Świątek also had to deal with a greater intensity of matches – she had many times combined the competition in doubles and singles tournaments, and often in both of them it reached the decisive phases.

She has never physically suffered from doubles. “She had a lot of great games there and learned to build her game even better,” he said. – It is very versatile. You look at her tennis and you see talent and power. You see the tactical sense, you see how good offense he has and that he can play defensively differently from all other tennis players – he assessed.

Therefore, the Polish woman has models of preparation and reconstruction of form at key meetings. A great performance in the final in Rome after the challenging previous days was something unique. Now the Polish woman has a lot to draw from in terms of experience. In Australia, apart from a greater “burden” of competition, the weather is also against each other. During the match against Kaja Kanepi, the temperature on the court was around 37 degrees. It will be slightly cooler against Collins, according to forecasts – 25 degrees. This is due to the fact that the game is played in the evening, and not almost at noon, as in the case of the game with Estonia.

Iga Świątek’s game is scheduled for the second in the order of Thursday’s evening session in Australian time at the main court of Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. It will start after the end of the first semi-final, where Ashleigh Barty and Madison Keys will face each other. This meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Polish time. Coverage of the Polish woman’s match on Sport.pl and in the Sport.pl LIVE mobile application.