French Open 2020 - 'After beating Simona Halep, I knew I could beat anyone,' says Iga Swiatek

ByThe Editorial Team

Updated 12/10/2020 at 10:07 GMT

French Open champion Iga Swiatek has opened up on her historic victory, admitting that once she had beaten top seed Simona Halep in the round of 16, she thought she 'could beat anyone'. The 19-year-old is the youngest woman to win at Roland Garros since Monica Seles, and is Poland's first ever Grand Slam singles champion.

Iga Swiatek has opened up on her historic French Open singles victory in which she became Poland's first ever Grand Slam singles champion and the youngest woman to win at Roland Garros since Monica Seles.

The 19-year-old beat top seed Simona Halep on her way to the final, where she defeated number four Seed Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1. Remarkably, she didn't drop a set during the tournament.

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"Basically this was the first tournament that I felt I'm comfortable on court," Swiatek told WTA Insider.

"My first match I wasn't really confident because of the things I had to work through but it got better every day here."

After the Round of 16 win over Simona I felt like I'm in the right place mentally and right now. I can win with anyone.

"It's easy to say to focus on your legs or the movement or the tactics, but I think the easy solutions are the best solutions. I've done what my team told me to do. I trusted them for the whole tournament."

Iga Swiatek becomes Poland's first ever Grand Slam singles champion

Image credit: Getty Images

"I'm aware that I have great instincts but actually in this tournament I think the tactics helped me a lot. Sometimes I just don't think and I just play my game because usually I know where to play and I have my own idea of how it should work.

But to be honest, in previous tournaments even though Coach Piotr told me tactics I tend to do exactly the opposite. In this tournament I trusted him and I did 100% in every match what he told me.

"I think to get the success you need to have to have a mix of instincts and a mix of smart game and tactics to achieve something. I know I have instincts and I know that I should work on using tactics a little bit more. I think in this tournament I did everything pretty well.

"Even though I knew I have potential and I knew that I can win big tournaments, because I won junior Wimbledon in 2018, I still had my doubts. I think I knew in the back of my head that I can do pretty nice things on court, but also it's hard for me to be confident all the time.

"So right now I'm going to focus on that consistency. I want to believe in myself for the whole time and for every tournament. So we're going to work on that because I know that it's weird that you can win a Grand Slam and lose in the first round in Rome or Western and Southern. So I really want to be consistent.

"I think for my whole career, the junior Wimbledon taught me a lot, the whole experience. I think back then during this week I actually felt almost the same as here. I just felt like I could do anything. I just want to have that feeling on every tournament and be more consistent."

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