PARIS: Hugo Swiontek returns to a happy hunting ground as she seeks a maiden Olympic crown to add to her four French Open titles at Roland Garros.
The Polish world number one has dominated the Paris red clay, winning four of her last five tournaments, and has not lost there since a quarter-final loss to Greece's Maria Sakary in 2021.
The five-time Grand Slam champion, who won the US Open in 2022, is aiming to go much further than the 2021 Tokyo Games, where she lost to Paula Badosa in the second round.
Svyontek, 23, had plenty of time to prepare for the Paris Olympics after an early exit from Wimbledon, where she lost in the third round to Yulia Putintseva.
A painful loss on grass at the All England Club brought Swientek's 21-match winning streak to a grisly end.
After that, she was asked how she will prepare for the Olympics in Paris.
“Sure, I'll go to class and rest a little more,” she said. “I don't know, I feel like even though I didn't do very well in this tournament, because of the way the whole season has been, I deserve it.
“I literally have to do better because I'm not going to be able to go through the season playing good tennis.”
In 2020, Sveontek made a name for herself in the tennis world when she won the French Open without losing a single set.
She was the first Polish player, male or female, to win a Grand Slam singles title and has dominated the competition ever since, making one breakthrough three years ago.
Last month, she beat Italy's Jasmine Paolini in a one-sided final to become the fourth woman in modern times to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Coupe four times, after Justine Henin, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.
The world No. 1 also completed the Madrid-Rome-Roland-Garros clay-court treble. The only other woman in history to do it in the same season is Serena Williams.
Swiontek has a sports pedigree – her father Tomasz represented Poland in rowing at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
“Usually, it is difficult for a small child to hit even one or two balls, but she could continue to hit dozens of shots,” recalls Artur Shastachka, her first coach.
“She was a fighter… I knew that if it came to a super tiebreak, I wouldn't have to worry – Igo wouldn't break under pressure.”
Shastachko taught Svyontak until he was 10 years old.
She was then coached by Michal Koznovsky, who recalls that Svyontka always wanted to be treated on an equal footing with her hard-working older sister Agata.
“Igo got really mad at me because I suggested a rudimentary training where I would feed Agatha eight swords and only six to Igo because she was younger,” he said.
“It made her angry. She went to her father and said that she wanted as much as Agatha.”
Swiontek will be hoping that her determination will lead her to a gold medal on her favorite courts in Paris.
