Iga Swiatek is set to kickstart her Asian swing with a debut appearance at the Korea Open this week — though is the Pole fit ahead of her return to action?
World No 2 and six-time Grand Slam singles champion Swiatek has not been in action since the US Open earlier this month, where her campaign was ended by Amanda Anisimova at the quarter-final stage.
In the days after the match, the 24-year-old — who triumphed at Wimbledon earlier this year — revealed on social media that she had been “managing” a foot issue and had been “pushing through a lot” across her campaign, thanking US Open physios and medical staff for their support.
Swiatek’s comments on social media led some to believe that the Pole would hold a managed schedule across the Asian swing, with the Korea Open in Seoul an event that she could consider withdrawing from.
However, the world No 2 has been in Seoul for a handful of days and is the top seed at the WTA 500, with Swiatek still the favourite for the title despite a tricky draw early on in the Korean capital.
And, in encouraging news for the tournament and her fans, the 24-year-old has revealed she is not playing with “any pain”, even if she is short of time on the court.
She said: “I haven’t been practising a lot because I needed time to recover and to do everything to just be ready to play matches.
“So physically, I feel great. I feel like I need to practice some more, but I don’t have any pain or anything. It’s all good.”
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After winning Wimbledon, the Pole did not take too much time away from the court, reaching the fourth round of the Canadian Open just weeks later.
That was followed by her run to the Cincinnati Open title and then her US Open mixed doubles campaign straight afterwards, with her and partner Casper Ruud reaching the final of the revamped event.
A rumour did emerge that the mixed doubles was the cause of Swiatek’s foot issue, with the Pole not convincing across most of her women’s singles campaign.
However, in an interview with sport.pl, Swiatek’s coach Wim Fissette debunked such talk.
“I’m not one to judge whether the mixed doubles made things worse,” said Fiessette.
“I talked to Maciej [Ryszczuk, Swiatek’s physiotherapist] about it. I asked him if it was something we shouldn’t have done, looking back. He didn’t think it made much difference.
“The root of the problem turned out to be the tournament in Cincinnati, where it was really hot, which in Iga’s case, with her sliding and intense movement, is even more important. I think it was just bad luck.
“Of course, we’re trying to learn from it and see how we can do things better. Maybe we should tap more often when it’s really hot, when there’s a higher risk of blisters, maybe we should change our socks or shoes more often.
“We’ve talked about how to avoid this in the future and hopefully it won’t happen again.
“Playing with a numb foot means you approach matches with much more thought than a normal match, which was a big challenge. I’m proud of Iga for how she handled it, and I think we can be happy with this [US Open] quarter-final.”
Swiatek has the advantage of extra time to rest ahead of the start of the campaign, with all of the top four seeds receiving an opening-round bye in the main draw.
However, she does not have the easiest pathway through, with Zhu Lin or Sorana Cirstea set to be her opening opponent.
That could then be followed by a quarter-final against eighth seed Emma Raducanu, and potentially a semi-final versus third seed Clara Tauson — who beat her in Montreal this year.
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