NDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Iga Swiatek’s first attempt at lifting the BNP Paribas Open trophy was a no-go. The crystal sculpture was too heavy, its shape too bulky for her to raise it off the table where it sat gleaming in the Sunday afternoon sun.
Swiatek raised her index finger to the crowd, as if to tell the fans who were celebrating her triumph over Maria Sakkari to wait a second, she’d give it another try. It required a full-body effort, but the 20-year-old from Poland eventually got a good grip and held up the winner’s prize, a scene that’s sure to play out again and again over the next decade or more.
“My mind is blown,” she said of her 6-4, 6-1 victory, but it made perfect sense for the woman who has studiously improved her game and relied on a sports psychologist to help fortify her mental approach since she shocked the tennis world by winning the 2020 French Open as an unseeded entry.
