Iga Swiatek believes the short turnaround between matches affected her performance at the Olympic Games after she lost in the semi-finals.
The world No.1 suffered a shock 6-2, 7-5, defeat to China’s Qinwen Zheng who is the first player from her country to reach an Olympic final. Swiatek came into the match as the heavy favorite. She has been a dominant force at Roland Garros where she has won the French Open in four of the past five years. Furthermore, she had won 16 out of her last 17 matches against top 10 players before taking on Zheng.
“I had a hole in my backhand,” the Reuters news agency quoted Swiatek as telling Eurosport Poland. “It happens rarely because it is usually my most solid stroke.”
Highly emotional following her defeat, Swiatek admits she didn’t have enough time to work on her games between matches due to the schedule. Thursday was the fourth day in a row she played a match. However, she had only dropped one set in her three previous rounds whilst other singles players are also taking part in the doubles events.
“I was not technically well positioned because of the stress and the fact that I played my games day by day. We didn’t have time to adjust that and work on that,” she said.
“I know that’s not the justification but I tried to correct that during the match. Today it didn’t work at all. So she used that to win the game.”
Swiatek will have a shot at winning a medal later this week in the third place playoff match. Should she win, the five-time Grand Slam champion will become the first Polish player to win an Olympic medal in the Open Era.
