Chris Evert says Iga Swiatek “has a target on her back” as the Pole is “still the player to beat” on the WTA Tour. Swiatek, ranked at No 1 in the world, hasn’t been that convincing at the start of the 2023 season. Swiatek did manage to win Doha with a total of five games lost during the tournament but she also picked up a shock Australian Open round-of-16 exit and surprisingly lost to Barbora Krejcikova in the Dubai final.
Evert, a former 18-time Grand Slam champion, believes that when Swiatek loses, it’s usually because she fails to control the emotional part of her game.
Evert: Swiatek is still the player to beat on the WTA Tour
“We know she has the game physically.
We know she’s a great competitor, and she’s a great athlete. She’s got wonderful tools, and a wonderful skill-set in tennis. But it seems like in the matches that she’s lost, that emotional part has broken down. [Novak] Djokovic is almost like a machine.
He goes out there and, you know, he can just have that tunnel vision and focus and not let his emotions get in the way. I think Iga has shown in some matches that she has let her emotions get the best of her. So she would just have to be aware of that, I think.
But she is still the player to beat, no matter what you say. She will lose once in a while, but she’s still the player to beat, and she does have a target on her back. Nobody understands the pressures of being number one unless you are number one.
Nobody understands that, and it does take a while to adjust,” Evert told Eurosport’s Arnold Montgault. Meanwhile, Swiatek is set to defend her Indian Wells title. Last year, Swiatek won her first title in the desert after beating Maria Sakkari in the final.
This year, Swiatek is the top-seeded player and has a first-round bye in Indian Wells. After a first-round bye, Swiatek plays the winner of the match between Alison van Uytvanck and Claire Liu.
