“Truth be told, I wasn’t counting games,” the Pole joked of the league’s unique scoring format. “I’m pretty confident I can focus on other things in matches, change something up with my tactics, or just implement what I’ve been working on in the off-season. The score isn’t the most important thing here.
“Mostly it’s fun and learning, so I’m pretty happy that I played such a solid game.”
The lighter atmosphere in Dubai kicked off with a mixed affair between Swiatek’s teammates Eugenie Bouchard and Holger Rune against Bianca Andreescu and Nick Kyrgios of the Eagles. With Andreescu and Kyrgios defeating Bouchard and Rune in straight sets, the proverbial pressure was on for Swiatek, who kept the crowd engaged with her inimitable shotmaking.
Garcia kept things close, especially in the second, but ultimately found herself outmatched in the game’s deciding points and Swiatek served out her first victory in six weeks.
“There’s always something to improve. I’m 21, so I think I can actually do many things, but on volleys, especially, we’ve been working on my volley game.
“Rohan [Bopanna] taught me some volleys before the tournament,” she added, shouting out her Kites teammate, “So it’s his fault that I missed one of them on game point!”