Fans of Iga Swiatek’s book club will be pleased to know that the five-time Grand Slam champion has revealed what she is currently reading in preparation for the US Open.
Swiatek is reading “Out of Africa,” the memoirs of Karen Blixen, a Dane who lived for many years on a coffee farm in Kenya.
The Pole was embarrassed by a three-part question during a press conference, but gave an update for those keen to know what books the 2022 US Open champion is reading:
She was asked: “What makes you feel good on the court? And secondly, where did you go after Cincinnati? Did you stay there to train? When did you arrive in New York? And finally, are you reading a great book right now?”
Swiatek replied: “Three questions? Well, I’ll read Out of Africa if the translation is good. So I’ll read that. One of the three is finished.
“Secondly, I stayed in Cincinnati for another day to have some rest. For example, I could go to the pool and everything. That’s how I wanted to recover.
“We came here. After the day of travel, I had one more day off, which I spent with my friends. And on Thursday I started training.”
“I don’t remember the third one.”
Swiatek came back to the topic and revealed what makes her feel good on the court: She said it is the feeling that she can hit most of her shots.
“I think it’s just the feeling that you can do most things quite naturally,” Swiatek added.
“You don’t have to think about technical details or movements because you can do everything with intuition. I think that makes the players feel comfortable.”
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Swiatek couldn’t say much about why she sometimes trains with her mouth taped, but added that breathing techniques help her not to think too much during games.
She rejected claims that she used similar techniques to Novak Djokovic, saying her methods were “probably not as advanced”.
“Well, it’s not like we do it a lot. Last year I taped my mouth shut a little bit. I only do it when my coach tells me to because I can’t really explain what it does. I can’t really tell you exactly, so, yeah, I’m not that familiar with the science behind it. So I do what they tell me to do.
“But of course breathing is important. I also have my techniques. On the pitch it is important to breathe in a certain way. I always try to keep that in mind, even though there are many things to think about.
“Also, I try to use it as a kind of meditation exercise, but of course you don’t meditate on the court. But if I focus on my breathing, I don’t know, it just makes me calmer and keeps me busy, you know, – I won’t think about other things that might distract me. I use breathing in different ways. Probably not as advanced as Novak.”
Swiatek will begin her US Open campaign on Tuesday with a first-round match against Kamilla Rakhimova.
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