Tennis-Skipping Wimbledon warm-ups was the smarter decision, says Swiatek

(Reuters) – Iga Swiatek is approaching Wimbledon a little differently this time around after skipping all the tune-up tournaments, but the top seed thinks it’s the best possible move for her as she bids to win her maiden crown at the All England Club.

For all her achievements over the last few seasons, the five-times Grand Slam champion remains largely unproven on grasscourts with none of the 22 singles titles in her vast cabinet coming on the surface.

Having been handed a quarter-final defeat by wildcard Elina Svitolina last year, the 23-year-old Pole will look to improve on that when she begins her Wimbledon campaign against former world number four Sofia Kenin on Tuesday.

“At the beginning, for sure it was tricky,” Swiatek told reporters when asked how she felt about her Wimbledon preparations on Saturday.

“I’m happy that I came here early because there is a huge difference between the grass that we have in our own country, for example, and here.

“Day after day I felt like I’m getting more rhythm and I can really feel the ball better. I feel good. For sure we approached this year a little bit differently basically because of the amount of matches that I played in the first part of the season.”

Fresh off her fourth French Open crown, the world number one withdrew from the Berlin Ladies Open earlier in the month, citing overall physical and mental fatigue after an intense nine weeks.

“I could probably squeeze in one more tournament before Wimbledon, but I don’t know if I would be able to physically be in a good shape till the end of the year,” Swiatek added.

“You kind of have to choose what’s better also for the future. I think that was smarter decision this year. Next year we’re also going to see how my results are going to look like before Roland-Garros because it all comes up to the final decision.

Swiatek, whose father Tomasz is a former Olympic rower and competed in the men’s quadruple sculls at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, confirmed that she will participate in the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“It means a lot… We have kind of an Olympic tradition in my family. Olympics were always this kind of tournament that was the most important, kind of above everything else,” she said.

“From my side as a professional, I’m going to treat it as any other tournament, to keep my routines, be able to perform my best. But it would mean obviously a lot.

Wimbledon runs from July 1-14, while the Paris 2024 Olympics will take place from July 26-Aug. 11.

(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru)