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World No. 1 Iga Swiatek has thrown down the gauntlet to Aryna Sabalenka ahead of the Stuttgart final on Sunday, declaring that she "hates losing."
The 20-year-old Pole racked up a 22nd win on the spin with a thrilling three-set victory over Liudmila Samsonova to reach a fourth consecutive final this season.
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Ahead of her showdown with Sabalenka, Swiatek explained how she has reaped success on the court by handling her emotions better.
"I honestly hate losing, but I don't think that's a proper thing to motivate you," Swiatek told the WTA. "Basically, you just don't want to give up. It's just natural for me and for other players. We were born to fight and to not give up. Before it was pretty hard for me to do that because it was hard to find solutions when my head was all over the emotions."
The Pole further stressed how well she has been able to negotiate clutch moments.
"Now I feel like I can control them (emotions), maybe not perfectly, but at least in those important moments and find solutions and come back to a good game again," she said.
Iga Swiatek's 2022 season so far
Iga Swiatek has been the form player on the WTA tour this year. She opened her campaign at the Adelaide Open, where she lost to then World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty in the semis.
At her next stop at the Australian Open, Swiatek reached the last four, losing to Danielle Collins. The Pole endured an early exit in Dubai, with Jelena Ostapenko beating her in a third-set tie-break in the round of 16.
However, Iga Swiatek hasn't lost in 22 matches since then. She has picked up titles in Doha, Indian Wells and Miami, whilst becoming the first Polish player to ascend to World No. 1.
After helping Poland beat Romania in the BJK Cup qualifiers, where she dropped just one game in two matches, her bandwagon rolled over to Stuttgart.
The 20-year-old racked up two straight-set wins before needing to recover from a set down against Samsonova to reach the final. However, Swiatek will have her task cut out against World No. 4 Sabalenka, who has reached her first final of the season and second in Stuttgart.
Iga Swiatek has split her two previous meetings with Sabalenka, with the Pole avenging her 2021 WTA Finals loss by beating the Belarusian in the Doha quarterfinals this year.
