World No 1 Swiatek ‘surprised’ at her dominant 2022 show

World No 1 Iga Swiatek enjoyed a stellar 2022 as the Warsaw-born player stormed to two Grand Slam victories besides winning titles across six tournaments. The affable Polish star notched up a staggering 67 victories including a 37-match winning streak from February to July.The 2022 Player of the Year yesterday candidly admitted she was left wondering how she stitched together a stunning run of form that brought title wins in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome, Paris, New York and San Diego."Yeah, I was (surprised). Things like that, they don’t happen often,” Swiatek, 21, said yesterday. "I thought that maybe in a few years I’m going to be that kind of player who is going to be so consistent to be World No. 1 and I wasn’t expecting it to happen last year,” she added."So for sure I was surprised, but honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about that throughout the whole season. I was just doing my job and playing as best as possible, and it happened,” Swiatek said."I didn’t plan it. It wasn’t my goal last season to be World No. 1, but I’m just happy that I was kind of disciplined and I didn’t overanalyse anything. I just played. After (my win at) Roland Garros I would say I was in a little bit of shock. My main feelings were I was happy, but also I didn’t know what’s gonna happen next and what I’m gonna face,” she said of her French Open win."At the end of the season, I had time to enjoy that (win),” the top seed at this week’s Qatar TotalEnergies Open explained.Swiatek said last year’s exploits makes her more ‘experienced’ as she feels ready to fire in Doha when she plays her first-round match. "The experience that I had last year here (in Doha) is helping, because I just know the conditions pretty well, the stadium and facilities. I feel like I’m just more experienced,” Swiatek said.The World No.1 said she is in the same space mentally where she was last season at this time of the year. "Actually, it’s not like everything changed (after last year’s series of wins). I would say after the Australian Open – when I had time to reset a little bit – I feel I am still in the same spot (mentally) because I tried to look at the race rankings and focus on competing with other players. I feel like looking at race rankings is going to help me look forward and not to (think of) what happened in the past,” Swiatek said."Last year my team work with my coach was pretty new so we were also kind of learning how to work together properly. I had different challenges, but my mindset was similar because I still want to fight for every ball,” she said.Swiatek said she feels little pressure going into this week as the defending champion in Doha."I’m not really focused on defending the titles because I feel like every year it’s a different story and every tournament is a different story. It just doesn’t make sense for me to think about last year’s tournament and this year’s tournament and think that it’s the same story. A lot can happen in one year,” Swiatek said."I really just want to start this tournament as any other player. We all start from the same spot. There are so many matches to win and so many obstacles to overcome that I really want to be focused just on the next step and on the next match,” she added."I’m not really thinking about winning or even playing in the next rounds. For me, only the second round matters right now,” the polish star added.Swiatek got knocked out in round 4 at last month’s Australian Open and quickly assessed why she couldn’t mount a serious challenge for the title."Actually what I needed was to reset my game a little bit. I knew what I did wrong at the Australian Open and over my whole stay in Australia. I really wanted to focus on getting my expectations lower. (You can’t) play perfectly all the time because last season was so strange that it can actually mess up with your head a little bit,” Swiatek said."I really wanted to get my both feet on the ground, focus on hard work and what I have to do on court. I was really happy as our practice sessions were intense. I feel like I could really focus on the technical stuff and just improve as a player,” he added.