Swiatek confident of being fit for Roland-Garros despite Rome withdrawal

The Pole says the thigh injury that forced her to retire against Elena Rybakina on Wednesday night is “nothing serious”

Zuma / Panoramic

May 19, 2023

World No 1 Iga Swiatek says she’s “pretty positive” that she’ll be back on court soon and ready for the defence of her Roland-Garros title.

The Pole retired at 2-2 in the deciding set of her quarter-final with Elena Rybakina at the Italian Open late on Wednesday night, citing an injury to her right thigh.

Sad moment for Iga Swiatek as she retires to Elena Rybakina in Rome

They both played some beautiful tennis. 💔

Hopefully she recovers quickly for Roland Garros. pic.twitter.com/QPx21H9TaL
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 17, 2023

But in a recorded statement given to the WTA, Swiatek said the extra time off will help her after a recent busy schedule.

“Basically, during the second set, at the end in the tiebreaker, I felt pain in my right thigh,” Swiatek said. “It was, like, pretty sudden. At the beginning I didn’t really know if it was serious or not.

“We did an examination with the physio afterwards. It shouldn’t be anything serious, so I’m pretty positive that I’ll be back soon.”

Swiatek to rest for a few days

Since losing to Elena Rybakina in the fourth round at the Australian Open, Swiatek has reached at the least the semi-finals of every event, winning in Qatar and Stuttgart.

From the start of Stuttgart to her withdrawal in Rome, Swiatek has played every week. The extra few days of rest, she said, will do her good.

“For sure I feel tired,” she said. “I think it was the right decision to stop playing because I felt pain when I was stretching, when I did, like, harder movements.

“For me, the most important thing is to kind of play it safe and not exploit my body so much in such a difficult conditions, after having to play few matches in night session and after midnight.

“To be ready for Roland-Garros I need to recover right now,” she said. “I’m going to take couple of days off. With my quarter-final loss, I have also time to then practice right before the tournament. I’m happy right now to have few days off because since Stuttgart I wasn’t really able to recover with that tight schedule that we have on WTA.”

Swiatek retires through injury in Rome @ AI/Reuters/Panoramic

Rybakina a thorn in Swiatek’s side

Wimbledon champion Rybakina has proved to be a troublesome opponent for Swiatek this year, beating her in Australia and again in Indian Wells. In Rome, Swiatek led by a set and a break but could not hold when serving for the match and Rybakina had the momentum when the Pole decided to call it a day.

Swiatek said Rybakina deserved to go through.

“I wouldn’t say that anything changed at the end of the second set,” she said. “For sure I lost my serve. I wasn’t able to hold it to win the set. But also I served with old balls. I know what mistakes I did. There weren’t, like, huge mistakes, but it was enough for me to lose the game.

“I felt little bit more pressure then, but I was able to kind of recover quickly. I had many chances on Elena’s serve later, but she really kind of fought back with great first serves.”