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“Let’s try one more,” Iga Świątek, the world’s number one women’s tennis player, says to an announcer on the court who just told an eager crowd that it was time to wrap it up. She’s not matched up with some of her top opponents like Coco Gauff or Aryna Sabalenka, instead on this day, she’s happily playing a few rounds with young tennis lovers on a city court in Paris, France. Świątek certainly could have walked away when time was up, the Olympic hopeful has earned her free time after winning the Miami Open, the Italian Open, the Madrid Open and the Australian Open in the span of just five months. But in a way that feels true to the 22-year-old Polish player’s laidback and earnest personality, she actually wants to play with the young girl on the other side of the court.
Before stepping out at the event put on by Swiss sneaker and activewear brand On, attendees watched a short documentary about the player’s career. It touched on her meteoric rise in the sport, the interesting and unconventional way she holds her racquet, how she’s mentally dealt with a sudden rise in fame and how, even at her age, she wants to be a role model for young girls.
“I was a little bit nervous,” Świątek said about making the film. She wanted people to see the real her – a fierce tennis player with a quiet side, who grew up in Warsaw and loves her city. The film also touches briefly on her mental health, specifically how she’s balancing the attention of tennis fame, both good and bad. “I just won Rome and for the past two days [there wasn’t] even one hour when nobody asked me for photos,” she said. “It’s not easy, but it’s an important part of the job.” Despite some discomfort (she’s admittedly shy), connection is something she takes seriously; she wants to be a role model for young players and fans – cut to that scene of her going just one more round with a young player on the court.
“Sometimes [people] are really nice and they also say, ‘oh, my kids started playing tennis because of you’. And this kind of thing also can motivate you sometimes and show you that there’s a bigger purpose.”
Of course, with a heightened visibility comes relentless scrutiny, especially for an athlete. Many of her contemporaries across sports have been very open about this down side of playing a game on this level. “I have my ways if I’m feeling too overwhelmed or if I see too many comments about myself. I just try to stay low, and off social media.” There’s also a pressure she puts on herself to perform. She’s one of the best tennis players of all time and that’s a type of internal pressure most of us will never understand. “There is always going to be pressure, especially when you’re number one and so expectations are high, but I wouldn’t say these expectations from the outside are the ones that are bothering me,” Świątek admits. “Sometimes I’m on top of myself because I’m a perfectionist and I would say that the most work that I have to do is on myself rather than on the expectations from the outside. The season is long and there are some periods where you feel like you’re underperforming and then the pressure can be really tough.”
