"I felt a lot of stress today" - 'Perfectionist' Iga Swiatek opens up about her 'emotional' French Open 2024 triumph

Iga Swiatek lifted her fourth French Open title on Saturday, ousting Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1 in the summit clash. Despite what the scoreline suggests, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the Pole.

Reflecting on her performance during the post-match press conference, Swiatek said she was happy with how she managed herself, given that she had put herself under considerable pressure coming into the final.

The World No. 1 said being a "perfectionist," she tends to expect more from herself and that outside pressure complicates the matter for her.

"Usually I put pressure on myself because of you know, pressure of the outside," Iga Swiatek said (at 5:05). "So, obviously I'm a perfectionist. So, there is always pressure like behind me."

"But I think I'm fine with, like, handling my own pressure. It's when the pressure from the outside hits me, then it's, you know, a little bit worse, but I was, you know, I managed it really well at this tournament," the Pole added.

Elaborating on the lead-up to the final against Paolini, Swiatek said she was stressed for a day and a half but knew that she could “fight through” by keeping her sole focus on her tennis.

The youngster went on to say that she was proud of herself for getting what she described as an "emotional win."

"And it was an emotional win because I felt, you know, a lot of stress yesterday and um, today in the morning and I knew that, if I'm gonna just focus on tennis, I can kind of fight through it," the World No. 1 said (at 5:20).

"And at the end, it all went, you know how I wanted, so I just felt really proud of myself," she added.

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Iga Swiatek on French Open 2024 run: "I was able to get better and better every match"

Jasmine Paolini (L) and Iga Swiatek with the 2024 French Open trophies.

Notably, Iga Swiatek found herself on the verge of exiting the French Open earlier in the fortnight. Down match point against Naomi Osaka, she dug deep to come through 7-6(1), 1-6, 7-5 and never looked back.

The Pole discussed her form throughout the Claycourt Slam, saying she was not feeling her best at the beginning of the tournament, but got better with each passing match.

"This tournament has been you know, pretty surreal with its, you know, the beginning and with the second round. Then I was able to get my game better and better every match," Iga Swiatek said (at 0:10)

"So I'm really proud of myself because there's the expectations, obviously, have been pretty high from the outside and the pressure as well," she continued. "So I'm happy that I just went for it and I was you know ready to deal with all of this and yeah and I could win."

Swiatek has won three consecutive titles in Paris, having beaten Karolina Muchova and Coco Gauff in the 2023 and 2022 finals.