{"id":167595,"date":"2025-09-25T04:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T04:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/167595\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T04:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T04:06:10","slug":"iga-swiatek-claims-she-has-a-bigger-focus-than-becoming-world-number-one-for-the-rest-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/167595\/","title":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek claims she has a bigger ‘focus’ than becoming world number one for the rest of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iga Swiatek has suggested she is not thinking about returning to world number one too much.<\/p>\n

Swiatek broke one of Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s records<\/a> last week after beating Ekaterina Alexandrova to win the Korea Open<\/a> title for the first time.<\/p>\n

The Korea Open was the 24-year-old\u2019s third title this year, adding to Swiatek\u2019s Wimbledon title win<\/a> and her Cincinnati Open<\/a> victory.<\/p>\n

Swiatek has now closed the gap on the world number one ranking<\/a>, but that does not appear to be a priority of hers in the latter stages of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

\"IgaPhoto by Han Myung-Gu\/Getty ImagesIga Swiatek declares different goal to becoming world number one<\/p>\n

Swiatek<\/a> currently trails world number one Sabalenka<\/a> by 2,792 ranking points, but that gap is not as big as it seems.<\/p>\n

After missing the Asian swing last year, Swiatek has an opportunity to close the gap on Sabalenka<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This feels even more relevant now that Sabalenka has withdrawn from the China Open<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

When asked about the world number one ranking in her pre-tournament press conference<\/a> ahead of the China Open<\/a>, Swiatek admitted it was in the back of her mind, but it is not her main priority for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I would say it\u2019s always something to be, like, there in the back, but it\u2019s not like it\u2019s a main focus,\u201d said Swiatek.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already know that thinking about the rankings, it\u2019s not a way to go, no matter if you\u2019re No. 2 or no matter if you\u2019re No. 1. It\u2019s just kind of numbers. But it doesn\u2019t change the fact that you need to kind of feel the tennis and focus on the improvement on the court, then the results are going to come after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m not focusing on that. For sure it\u2019s a different situation than last year when I wasn\u2019t really able to defend my No. 1, like earn it. Yeah, so for sure I\u2019m just happy that I\u2019m here and I can compete and fight for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I got to say, yeah, my main focus is more, like, tennis-related, how I want to play, how I feel on court, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iga Swiatek explains how she felt when she last played the China Open<\/p>\n

This year will be Swiatek\u2019s second appearance at the China Open, having won the title on her tournament debut in 2023.<\/p>\n

When re-living her victory in Beijing, Swiatek admitted that she was actually not in a good place at the start of the tournament, but her win over the now-retired Caroline Garcia<\/a> enabled her to loosen up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s for sure changed throughout the tournament because I came here after Tokyo when I lost, like, third round,\u201d said Swiatek. \u201cIt was a smaller tournament. It was a big disappointment. I wasn\u2019t feeling good. I also felt really tired overall with the season after the US Open. I was even considering maybe skipping Asia Swing like two years ago. But my team said I\u2019m not at that stage to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here without any expectations. More like with being a bit tense because also I didn\u2019t win any WTA title. Everybody kind of judged me. I didn\u2019t have a good time at the beginning. I was having a hard time on every practice and on every match.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater on, throughout the tournament, I felt like, yeah, the surface fits me, the balls fit me, as well. We played this amazing match with Caro Garcia that was super tight. After that, I don\u2019t know, I kind of let go of this tension and I could play really great tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure this tournament kind of lift me up in terms of my \u2013 I don\u2019t know \u2013 energy that I felt because, yeah, the last part of the season is not easy. Everybody feels a bit more fatigued, but I still need to push. For sure this tournament was a great, like, change of momentum in the season for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swiatek will be hoping to continue her good form from winning the Korea Open, and try to recreate her success in Beijing from two years ago.<\/p>\n

As the top seed, the Pole receives a bye to the second round, where she awaits the winner of the match between Yulia Putintseva and Yue Yuan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek has suggested she is not thinking about returning to world number one too much. Swiatek broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,616,82,593,4306],"class_list":{"0":"post-167595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-iga-swiatek","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}