(Reuters) – Iga Swiatek has embraced the strain that comes with being world primary and can go into the French Open because the overwhelming favorite to clinch a second main title, tennis nice Martina Navratilova stated.
After changing Ash Barty on the prime of the world rankings following the Australian’s shock retirement in March, Swiatek has seemingly revelled in her standing as the highest ladies’s participant.
The 20-year-old Pole received her maiden Grand Slam title on Roland Garros’s crimson clay in 2020 and has arrived in Paris having received 5 consecutive titles, together with 4 WTA 1000 occasions, and 28 straight matches.
“You cannot be any hotter than she is true now,” 18-times Grand Slam winner Navratilova instructed the WTA. “She’s enjoying nice and he or she’s wholesome – that is a incredible mixture. She’s contemporary and battle-tough on the identical time.
“She appears to be like fairly unbeatable on any floor, significantly the clay now. So now we have an awesome favorite going into the French, when it was extensive open final 12 months.
“Clearly, the strain isn’t bothering her. She’s simply embracing that. It’s nice to see – if you end up the favorite, and you retain on successful.”
Australian Sam Stosur, who received the U.S. Open in 2011 and reached the ultimate at Roland Garros the earlier 12 months, stated Swiatek’s confidence was sky-high and he or she was at the moment the strongest on the earth mentally.
“If you are successful back-to-back titles, you are feeling unimaginable, that confidence grows,” Stosur instructed the Australian Open web site.
“It does not matter what is going on on, you are going to step out onto that courtroom and assume that you will win each single match. And I feel that (feeling) is simply constructing and constructing and constructing.
“Any small weak spot, or any small little bit of doubt, is getting erased each time she steps on courtroom with one other win. I feel it is fairly onerous to go previous somebody who’s been so dominant for the final couple of months on tour … and successful numerous these matches comparatively comfortably.”
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; enhancing by Toby Davis)
