“I think Novak Djokovic is a great example of that” – Swiatek on making the right long-term decisions

Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek has cited Novak Djokovic as one of the players she looks up to when it comes to taking long-term decisions.

The Pole, now ranked No 2 in the world behind Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, is in Riyadh this week for the season-ending WTA Finals, where she will begin her campaign against eighth seed Barbora Krejcikova on Sunday. This will be her first tournament since joining forces with Wim Fissette as her new coach.

During the pre-tournament interaction with the media, Swiatek was asked about making decisions with a long-term view that might adversely impact her in the short-run. The Pole responded that it was not easy to do the same and cited the 24-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic as one of the people she hopes to learn from on this aspect.

You can see the most experienced players on tour, they are a bit older, skipping some tournaments, but actually being able to play their best games on Grand Slams, the biggest events that they really care about.

Iga Swiatek

“Honestly it’s not easy. I feel like understanding some decisions, it’s more kind of a grown-up thing to do. Understanding this long-term thing, for sure, is important if I want my career to be really long and balancing everything out,” Swiatek responded.

“Honestly, well, sometimes it’s hard to make a decision. But when you do it, I don’t have any regrets usually. I’m an over-thinker. If I make a decision, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a good one. So basically I trust myself in that way. But for sure it was much harder, like, couple of years ago to make these kind of decisions. Now I feel like I know a bit more. Probably in the future I’m going to have to also make some decisions. You can see the most experienced players on tour, they are a bit older, skipping some tournaments, but actually being able to play their best games on Grand Slams, the biggest events that they really care about. I think like Novak Djokovic, for example, is a great example of that. We can learn from people like that.”

Swiatek will also play Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the group stages in Riyadh later this week with the top two players from the group advancing to the semi-finals at the end of the round-robin play.

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