Iga Swiatek admits being under pressure before her round 4 exit in Australian Open 2023

World number one Iga Swiatek said she felt the pressure and needed to ‘chill’, after suffering a shocking exit in the Australian Open last 16 on Sunday. The Pole came into Melbourne Park as a favourite for the first Grand Slam of the year but was beaten in straight sets by Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina at Rod Laver Arena.

The 21-year-old admitted she succumbed under pressure as her dream of a fourth major crown and first one in Australia — was shattered.

“Well, for sure, the past two weeks have been pretty hard for me,” Swiatek told reporters

“I felt today that I don’t have that much left to fight even more. I felt like I took a step back in terms of how I approach these tournaments, and I maybe wanted it a little bit too hard. So I’m going to try to chill out a little bit more,” she added.

Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina will face a quarter-final against Jelena Ostapenko after beating Swiatek.

Swiatek dominated women’s tennis in 2022 after the retirement of last year’s Australian Open champion Ashleigh Barty, at one point going on a 37-match unbeaten streak to become a force to reckon with.

“I felt the pressure. I felt that I didn’t want to lose instead of wanting to win,” Swiatek admitted.

Rybakina was always in control of the match, particularly once her first serve, one of the fastest in the women’s game, got into gear.

“Elena was the one that was more solid today and I felt like it was more about who is going to put more pressure on, and she did that pretty well,” said Swiatek.

Rybakina, the 22nd seed, slapped down six aces to Swiatek’s two and fired home 24 winners to the Pole’s 15.

“She served, you know, as she does usually,” said Swiatek.

I wanted to put it back on her: Iga Swiatek

“I wanted to put it back on her, but on my service games I felt like I need to just work really, really hard to get any point because my first serve wasn’t working.”

Swiatek said she would strive to recapture her stunning form of 2022.

“For sure I need to work on my mindset and fight a little bit more, as I did last season,” she said.

“I’m going to take time right now to kind of reset.”