{"id":360420,"date":"2024-01-16T20:37:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T21:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360420"},"modified":"2024-01-16T22:02:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T22:02:05","slug":"world-no-1-swiateks-candid-barty-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360420","title":{"rendered":"World No.1 Swiatek's candid Barty admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Iga Swiatek<\/a> stares down a fifth grand slam championship, the current world No.1 \ufeffreflected upon her journey to the top of the women's game, citing Ash Barty's<\/a> role in providing "huge inspiration" to perfect her style of play.<\/p>\n

Swiatek survived an early test in the opening round of the Australian Open<\/a> when she held off 2020 champion Sofia Kenin 7-6 (2), 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

She'll now meet another former finalist at Melbourne Park, American Danielle Collins, in the next round.<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> Latest news and action from Australian Open day four\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Zverev clashs with journo amid assault allegations<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>'Jealous' Kokkinakis opens up on 'tricky' tennis reality<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

After the win over Kenin, Swiatek was asked about Barty's influence on her career, despite the two only facing off twice before Barty retired, with the Australian former No.1 winning both clashes in straight sets.<\/p>\n

"Ash changed a lot, changed my mindset going into 2022," said Swiatek, who became world No. 1 after Barty suddenly retired in early 2022.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I think that was a breakthrough for me. I was a top-10 player, but it was tough to play against her [Barty] and to win points, and she really motivated me.<\/p>\n

"It wasn't the only reason, but it was one of the reasons I later became world No.1, because I just felt I had more variety.<\/p>\n

"I started practicing this stuff just to play against her, getting back slices and everything. So for sure, I'm really grateful for her.<\/p>\n

"I don't know if I would still be world No.1 if she was still playing but she was a huge inspiration."<\/p>\n

Barty\ufeff defeated Swiatek at the 2021 Madrid Open and the 2022 Adelaide International, ahead of her win at Melbourne Park that year.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Australian Open live and exclusive on Nine,<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and ad-free on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"It was really annoying losing against [Barty] and playing against her because, as I said, you knew what she's going to play, in terms of the tactics and the placement," said Swiatek.<\/p>\n

"She did it so well, there was nothing you could do. It really annoyed me. I wanted to get better, be able to be solid when she's playing her slices.<\/p>\n

"Even though she wasn't the tallest [player], she served really well and the placement was amazing. I knew that if I'm going to be working hard, it could be possible for me. She really motivated me.<\/p>\n

"Also, off court, I felt like she has distance to everything what's going on. Yeah, for sure she felt a lot of pressure and stress. She was always in her own bubble, in the zone. I really respected that."<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Swiatek had to battle to stay in her opener against 2020 Australian Open winner Kenin.<\/p>\n

Kenin served for the first set at 5-4 but could not close it out. Swiatek rallied to take it in a tiebreaker and then broke serve five games later.<\/p>\n

"It wasn't easy to find my rhythm. I felt a little bit off and Sofia did everything to keep it that way, huge respect to her," Swiatek said. "I managed to get my level up in the second set."<\/p>\n

Swiatek will play\ufeff Collins, a runner-up in Melbourne two years ago, after the US player beat 2016 champion Angelique Kerber 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.<\/p>\n

"A tough little bracket that we have" Collins said. "I was like, 'wow, I get really great draws now'. But if you're trying to win a grand slam, you have to beat everyone."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Iga Swiatek stares down a fifth grand slam championship, the current world No.1 \ufeffreflected upon her journey to the top of the women's game, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":360422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360425,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360420\/revisions\/360425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/360422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}