World No. 1 and US Open champion Iga Swiatek speaks to CNN’s Richard Quest about his new book, “The Perfect Storm.”
Swiatek is one of the few players to win three major titles — Wimbledon, the US Open and the French Open — in the same calendar year.
He has said the pressure to win big has been in his makeup since he was a kid, but he didn’t realize how intense it would become. When he was 14, he was told that he wouldn’t be a top player. He was sent to a club and told he didn’t belong. He grew up on the beach tennis courts of Florida, where the competition and the fans and the pressure to win were huge.
As he was going through the years, he decided to make a choice that maybe he never would have made to his parents, who had made him feel like an outcast. He said he wanted to prove a point to them.
He had the pressure of being a major champion, and he had the pressure of being a son of a champion.
He has won seven Grand Slam titles, and played in two major finals during his career. He has also won two Olympic gold medals, two Grand Slam singles titles, five Wimbledon singles titles, one US Open singles title, three Australian Open singles titles, one French Open singles title and one Australian Open doubles title.
“I felt like a champion all the way. It was very comfortable, very comfortable. It was comfortable to me,” Swiatek said.