ALEX CORRETJA PREVIEWS ROLAND-GARROS
Two-time Roland-Garros finalist Alex Corretja has analysed the prospects of the in-form world number one Iga Swiatek ahead of the tournament starting this Sunday.
What do you think of Iga Swiatek's recent run of form?
She is just unbelievable at what she's been doing. It's very impressive. It's very difficult. And we always talk about consistency on the tour. You can see how consistent she's been. She made the decision to skip Madrid and it wasn't easy but then she came back in Rome and then she did great again and won.
Not losing matches, not losing sets, not losing games. This is very impressive. And she's got an unbelievable game because she puts so much pressure on the return, the good backhand, good forehand. Nice serve. She moves well. I think she found a great balance between being such a great player that everybody knows her and dealing with all the stuff that is going on around her and becoming the number one. I think [it gives] her so much confidence to believe that she's the best.
When you enter a Grand Slam tournament with a 28-0 run [like Swiatek]. Is it a threat for a player or rather an advantage because you think that you are unbeatable?
No, I think she doesn't need to think that she's unbeatable. because that will be a mistake. I think she needs to feel that if she gives her 100%, she is going to be almost impossible to beat. And this is very important. If you feel that you are unbeatable, you can lose. But if you feel like you give yourself the chance to be at 100% every game - even if you're not playing your best, you will find a way to win because you have so many matches on your back.
And it's good for you and bad for the opponents. And that's what I think she needs to take advantage of. Not thinking that she has the pressure. She doesn't even have to feel pressure because you already won Roland-Garros and she must probably win many more. But for the moment, it would be good for her to just keep on going and do the same. It's been working very well in the last weeks. So I think she should continue the same.
Do you see anyone that can threaten Swiatek in Paris?
There are players who are difficult to beat. We can't just think that she's the only one that is going to play well. You never know which curses you can have in the fourth round.
Maybe you get tired after that one. And then you reach the quarterfinals. You are feeling a little bit more tired than usual. I think it won’t be that easy. Maybe it could be easy for her if she does it well, but at the same time, Roland-Garros is always an experience tournament where you have players that they won before like Halep, Krejčíková, Muguruza or some others that they didn't play maybe that well but all of a sudden when they entered that tournament, they feel like they're dangerous at the same time. I think she’s the favourite, yes but she has to take care of the situation.
What do you think of the night matches at Roland Garros?
Well, lighting is always a tricky thing. Because the days are long, the conditions are different, much slower. If you play long matches, then it's not that easy to recover for two days after. So it can affect your recovery in the tournament. I think they start at nine if I'm not wrong, so they can finish very late. But hopefully, if they play a long match, then they will have time to recover two days after and they will be okay. But the conditions are a bit different. Definitely the ball is bouncing way lower and the matches are very difficult to be quick because it's difficult to hit winners. You need to use a lot of drop shots. So it's nice for the crowd. I think it's nice for the tournament. I think it's a little bit tougher for the players.
Alex Corretja is an expert for Eurosport at Roland-Garros. Live coverage of Roland-Garros starts on Sunday 22 May on discovery+, Eurosport and Eurosport App.