2008 Roland Garros champion Anna Ivanovic revealed that she is a fan of Iga Swiatek and adds that the Polish player’s game reminds her a bit of Iga Swiatek. Swiatek is making a stunning run in 2022 as she won her last 28 matches and is aiming for her sixth consecutive title at this year’s French Open.
Just like Ivanovic, Swiatek became one of the Roland-Garros Grand Slam champions. “I really like his style of play, it reminds me a bit of myself,” Ivanovic said of Swiatek when appearing on the Olympics Channel podcast.
“Especially when I saw her win Roland Garros in 2020. She really likes to run around her forehand hit, she has a really fun game”
Ivanovic talks about his mental struggles in tennis
12 months ago at Roland-Garros, Naomi Osaka confessed to battling depression and anxiety.
Thinking about it, Ivanovic said the challenges and pressures players face can certainly be tough. “There is a lot, paradoxically, but a lot of pressure on women to perform, to always be on top,” Ivanovic explained.
“Osaka has talked a lot about her mental struggles and the pressure she’s under, like everyone else I think. It’s just the way everyone copes. And that’s not always fun, it’s not always easy.
At times in my career it was very difficult at times because I was so focused on the outside world, the results, what people believed, etc.
Then you realize that really, it’s not what matters, it’s what comes from within. I think the mental part of the game is a lot more important than it’s ever been.”
For Ivanovic, one of the biggest problems players have is that outsiders don’t really see what’s going on behind the scenes. “People make their judgments based on what they see, which is not — well, most of the time — the whole story.
It might be very difficult for players to recover from this because they know the reality is different.”
