"It may be tough, but I heard Roger Federer did it once" - Iga Swiatek on focusing preseason to win elusive Slam

Grass is not Iga Swiatek’s favorite surface just as clay wasn’t Roger Federer’s. The World No. 1, however, hopes to grow into a natural on the lush lawns.

If that does work, Swiatek is admittedly eyeing to take a leaf out of the legend’s book. Speaking to media at the pre-tournament press conference at Wimbledon, the Pole said she recalls reading that Roger Federer dedicated an entire preseason to prepare for the French Open — a puzzle that the young Swiss was yet to crack.

"It may be tough, but I heard that Roger Federer once did the preseason on Roland Garros," Iga Swiatek said. "I think - I'm not sure - because he wanted to win Roland Garros obviously later in the season."

Elaborating on her chances of winning big on grass, Swiatek expressed hope that she will be able to contend for the Wimbledon trophy after getting more accustomed to the surface and having more matches under her belt.

"If I would have more time to play on grass, I'm pretty sure that I would be able to play better and better," she continued. "But as I said, if you play well in Roland Garros, you have only like one week of practice and one week of tournament, then you go on Wimbledon. This year I feel like we had more time to kind of focus on, like, the basics, more time to also play matches. Yeah, I'm using that time as much as possible."

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"Footwork is where my strength is on other surfaces" - Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.

Dissecting her own game, Iga Swiatek said her main focus usually remains on her footwork as she felt it was her biggest strength on any given surface.

"Well, I think mainly I'm focused on footwork because that's I think where my strength is on other surfaces," Iga Swiatek said. "For sure sliding is tricky here, so you have to slow down and stop before the shot in a different way."

The World No. 1 said she felt not playing any matches on grass in the lead-up to Wimbledon last year was a mistake.

Swiatek went on to add that she thought that playing well at French Open would mean that she would do well at Wimbledon too, but that was not the case.

"The thing is, last year when I didn't play any matches before Wimbledon, it was hard to use my intuition because there was pressure. I felt like I'm playing a Grand Slam, and I played so well in Roland Garros that I should play well here as well. But it's different," she added.