Iga Swiatek opens up about the effects of PMS on her game during Sakkari match, says she won against her "stress" and "fear" in match against Sabalenka 

2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek's WTA Finals debut hasn't gone the way she would have liked. The Pole has gone down in both her matches at Guadalajara so far, with her latest loss coming in a three-set thriller against top seed Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday.

Despite the 6-2, 2-6, 5-7 heartbreaker, the 20-year-old refuses to brood over the loss. Instead, Swiatek wants to take the positives from her monumental efforts.

The World No. 9 admitted that Sabalenka didn't allow her to get into a rhythm. But she was still happy to have overcome the "stress" and "fear" of handling the nerves at such a high-profile event and called it a "positive day" overall.

"I think I played really good, but for sure I didn't have a lot of rhythm because also Aryna is that kind of player that doesn't let you get that rhythm," Swiatek said at her post-match press conference. "I hit a lot of frames, I'm aware of that."

"But looking at how I felt when I came here, two days ago, also yesterday, I feel like I kind of won today, 2-1 maybe, because I won against my stress and a little bit of fear, but I lost against Aryna," she added. "In the end, I'm going to think this is a positive day, and also I can get experience from all that stuff."

Swiatek had made a forgettable start to her campaign on Thursday. The Pole was blown away 6-2, 6-4 by French and US Open semi-finalist Maria Sakkari, who claimed her third consecutive win over Swiatek.

Although it was a hard loss to take, the Rome champion made every effort to instrospect and understand what led to such a disastrous performance. Honest and forthright as ever, Swiatek opened up about how premenstrual syndrome hit her hard during her match against Sakkari.

"I worked pretty hard the past two days to understand a little bit more of why I felt so bad during the match against Maria," Swiatek said. "I don't want to make excuses or something. It's pretty hard to talk about that because I know in sports it's not that often. But like PMS really hit me that day. I'm telling this for any young girl who doesn't know what's going on. Don't worry, it's normal."

Iga Swiatek stopped by for fans even after her loss to Sabalenka

Iga Swiatek in action at the 2021 WTA Finals

Sabalenka and Swiatek put up a show that had the crowd on the edge of their seats. The Pole fell behind by a break in the decider but mustered enough courage to break back to 2-2.

Swiatek was then two points away from the win but couldn't hold off a resilient Sabalenka as the Belarusian closed out the deciding set 7-5.

The 20-year-old earned quite a few fans with her spirited performance. A section of the crowd stayed back to cheer for her and the fan favorite made time for them even after her tough loss.