Beaten Swiatek hoping to use extra time to prepare fully for US Open title defence

The world No 1 said she was running on empty after she was beaten by Coco Gauff in the semi-finals in Cincinnati

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August 20, 2023

Every loss has an upside, even if it’s hard to see it in the moments immediately afterwards.

For world No 1 Iga Swiatek, losing to Coco Gauff for the first time in eight meetings may have cost her a place in the final of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati was disappointing, but also allows her a couple of days more to get herself ready for the defence of her US Open title.

Thank you @CincyTennis for this week. A lot of good things to be proud of. A lot of work ahead. Congrats @CocoGauff ☺️👏🏼

Aaaaand…congrats @HubertHurkacz for solid week! 🤗

Now it’s time to 🔋 pic.twitter.com/9cVMe9lwvB

— Iga Świątek (@iga_swiatek) August 19, 2023

“My tank of fuel is pretty empty”

“From my perspective I would say my tank of fuel is pretty empty,” she admitted on Saturday night. “Honestly, I’m not even going to kind of regret a lot because I’m happy that I’m going to have days off now.”

“Coco, for sure, she played great tennis. I got to check, but I think her first serve was better than most of the matches we played against each other, faster. She played more in, even though she’s risking with that speed.

“The key is to win. I’ll just work on these things that I have in mind because there are things I want to do better at the US Open. Finally actually I’ll have time to work on that because this season we didn’t really have a lot of time to practice.”

Swiatek paid tribute to Gauff’s performance as she maintained her form of the summer, setting up a final against Karolina Muchova, who took out world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka.

New situation to come in New York

Defending a US Open title will be another new situation for her to deal with.

“I haven’t really been thinking about that, I was just focused on this tournament,” she said. “(But) I know from my experience already that being a defending champion is not easy. I’m going to kind of take it easy on myself and just try to do everything step by step.

“Last year’s tournament was also really tough. I could be out in the fourth round if you watched my matches. So I’ll just fight and I’ll see how it’s going to go.”