Swiatek, number one in the world, leaves with a shoulder injury

The women’s draw of the Mutua Madrid Open is left at the first change without its top seed and number one in the world, Iga Swiatek. The 20-year-old Polish woman, who had accumulated 23 consecutive victories with four titles, will not be able to compete for a right shoulder injury. Her place will be occupied by a player retaken from the previous one, but her place in the draw will be occupied by Leylah Fernández. “This is the smartest decision for the future, because in the last two months I haven’t had time to recover properly because after each tournament I had like two days just to rest before I start preparing for a new event and adapting to different conditions. Swiatek explained. “That doesn’t help. In Doha I played wet and at night, Indian Wells jet lagged and dry, Miami back to the wet, and Stuttgart on clay before facing Madrid on a different kind of clay. The best thing is to stop and prepare for Rome and Roland Garros. There are things that have damaged my body and these are very tough conditions to deal with.”

Swiatek led the upper part of the table, in which Garbiñe Muguruza is, and was the hypothetical rival of the Caracas player in the quarterfinals. The trajectory of the young woman who replaced the retired Ashleigh Barty on the throne was being meteoric in 2022, with the trophies conquered in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami and Stuttgart, the latter last week. He also won both matches in the qualifying round for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. against Romania (against Buzarnescu and Prisacariu). “I will not go home, because I like to see Europe and I prefer to focus on the circuit. I will look for a good place to train in Spain or Italy, because the plan is to play again in Rome,” the Pole advanced.

Thus, the main favorite now in Madrid is the number two, Paula Badosa, who debuts this Thursday in the first round against the Russian Veronika Kudermetova. Swiatek says his life is “the same” now that he’s number one. “It’s very satisfying to be playing my best tennis. It’s big, because I know the feeling of losing and not being happy with my performance. And now I can put into practice what I do well in training. But I think nothing has changed. I still have the same goals, I work the same, my team treats me the same and I have the same friends as when I wasn’t even in the top-100. I like it, because that makes me very stable”. Iga is clear that despite being at the top, “there are always things to improve” and that the rivals, who helped him in his day “to be better”, such as ” Sakkari, Sabalenka or Kontaveit” and does not believe that his relationship with them has changed. For the tennis player “the hardest thing is to be consistent”. “That’s why we have to be alert, because we compete every week and every time against rivals with a higher level.”