Two-time women's Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek is shining on her path at the top of professional tennis but said that lessons that are drawn from her idol Rafael Nadal have helped keep her from being unsteady in her success perspective.
After claiming her 35th successive match victory and sixth consecutive title on Saturday against Coco Gauff in Paris, the Polish star said that watching how Nadal has met success and failure had helped to shape her own path to the highs and lows of life on tour.
"I think the best thing I can learn from Rafael Nadal is how he's cool about what's going on around him. Because sometimes in our heads, I think many players are overanalyzing everything. We treat those finals... [that] if we are gonna lose suddenly, our life is bad," ATP quoted Iga Swiatek as saying.
"I feel like all these great champions, they kind of accept that they may lose. I remember even last year when Rafa lost in the semi-finals, I met him coincidentally the next day, at breakfast in the hotel, and I said to him that I was crying basically the whole evening because he lost," she added.
"He was, like, 'Oh, it's just a tennis match. You win, you lose. It's normal'. Not everybody can do that and just treat those big moments as another match," Swiatek said.
Nadal, who on Sunday will chase record-extending 14th Roland Garros and 22nd Grand Slam titles against Norway's Casper Ruud, has been full of praise for Swiatek.
"When somebody like her is winning the tournaments and is winning with these results, I mean, it's something special, no?" Nadal said in his pre-tournament presser at Roland Garros.
"It was a big surprise probably the first time, that couple of years ago when she won here. But the way that she's playing this year looks unstoppable... I'm just happy for her. She's a very spontaneous and natural girl. It good to have girls like this, good people like her having success," he said.
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