NEW YORK (Reuters) – An exhausted Iga Swiatek said she would try to “embrace” the pressure a bit more after losing to Jelena Ostapenko in the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Sunday, a defeat which sees her 75-week run as world number one come to an end.
Swiatek inherited top spot following Ash Barty’s retirement in April 2022 and embarked on a superb run of form in the months that followed to claim three more Grand Slam titles after her breakthrough French Open success in 2020.
The 22-year-old’s consistency meant only two other women have held the number one ranking for more consecutive weeks in their first stints at the top – Steffi Graf (186) and Martina Hingis (80).
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will take over from Swiatek when the rankings are updated on Sept. 11 and the Pole told reporters her time at the top had been great.
“On the other hand this last part was pretty exhausting,” she said after her 3-6 6-3 6-1 loss to Ostapenko.
“Usually I’m not looking at numbers, but overall I love them. I’d love to extend this record a little bit longer. This is something that when I was younger, I actually wanted to break some record or have something.
“I already did that because I already won a Slam as a first Polish player. Obviously being number one as the third player in history is great. But for sure when you lose it there are some sad emotions.”
Swiatek said she has made progress as a player but this season had been “really tough and intense”.
“It’s not easy to cope with all of this stuff,” she added.
After losing to former Roland Garros champion Ostapenko for the fourth straight time, Swiatek said she hoped to return stronger.
“When I’m going to be next time in the same situation, I’m going to do some stuff differently because, it was a little bit stressful, and it shouldn’t be,” Swiatek said.
“Tennis is stressful overall, but I should embrace it a little bit more. I’ll do it differently next time, so I guess that’s positive.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
