By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday May 19, 2023
In a statement recorded for the media, Iga Swiatek explains some of the details of her right thigh injury and the mental process she went through during Wednesday's quarterfinal with Elena Rybakina, in which she retired the match at 2-2 in the final set.
“During the second set, at the end in the tiebreaker, I felt pain in my right thigh. It was, like, pretty sudden. At the beginning I didn't really know if it was serious or not,” she said. “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 says she didn’t regret the decision to abandon her title defense against Rybakina, because the pain was a big issue in that moment.
“For sure I feel tired,” she said. “Yesterday I think it was the right decision to stop playing because I felt pain when I was stretching, when I did, like, harder movements.
Swiatek is being extra careful with Roland-Garros right around the corner. She has been through an arduous month of tennis, especially given the fact that events and Madrid and Rome have been expanded to two weeks, which leaves players in the throes of tournament player for a longer time than before.
“It's long and it's tricky,” Swiatek said of the new two-week format in Madrid and Rome this year. “The calendar, it seems like it's more and more tight. For sure I would say I don't mind my mentality. It's more like I would really appreciate to have like two more days to practice and to get the rhythm a little bit.”
If she can get healthy Swiatek will enjoy that time prior to Roland-Garros, where main draw begins nine days from now – on Sunday May 28.
“For me, the most important thing is to kind of play it safe and not exploit my body so much in such difficult conditions, after having to play few matches in night session and after midnight,” Swiatek said in her recorded statement.
Swiatek is planning to make the most of some critical rest time, and seems hopeful that she’ll be recovered in time to mount a title defense in Paris.
“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 quarterfinal 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.”