Iga Swiatek reveals the secret behind her easy Stuttgart opening-round win
Iga Swiatek revealed the key ingredient behind her success after kicking off her European clay swing in style at the 2025 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. The Pole's notebook was once a huge topic of discussion in the tennis fraternity and spurred many memes.
Swiatek, seeded second, received a bye into the second round, where she faced Jana Fett. The Pole began her European clay swing in perfect fashion, decimating the Croatian 6-2, 6-2. She will now face the winner of Emma Navarro vs Jelena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals.
During the on-court interview, she was asked about the importance of being in love with something in order to be good at it, to which the five-time Grand Slam champion responded:
“For sure, you need a lot of inner energy and a lot of motivation to get out every week and play as good as you can. For sure, it’s not only about technique and tennis. It’s about mentality and the feelings you have inside. I agree, totally.”
Iga Swiatek then gave a shoutout to her notebook, a key ingredient to her success for many years, which helped her clinch a strong win today as well.
“My notebook.. don’t laugh. I saw a few years ago some memes about it. But it’s really helpful. I note kind of everything.”
Interestingly, during the Italian Open in Rome last year, Swiatek had opened up about the details she chronicles inside her notebook.
"I just write my tactics there and also some keywords that I want to remember when I sometimes struggle" - Iga Swiatek
During her campaign at the 2024 Italian Open, Iga Swiatek spilled the secrets inside her notebook, revealing what it contained and how it helped her.
"I just write my tactics there and also some keywords that I want to remember when I sometimes struggle. Not to overthink anything but to have these keywords and to focus on them, so it depends. Mostly, it's tactics," Iga Swiatek said (2:22 onwards).
Not just Swiatek, but many players have a habit of bringing a notebook with them to the court to help them during their matches. One of these players is Naomi Osaka, whose interesting method of holding the pen had sparked amusing reactions from tennis fans last year.
The latest addition to this list is teenage wonder Mirra Andreeva, who has notes about her opponents inside her notebook. Though she didn't want to reveal much about the details inside the notebook, the Russian said her notes mainly cover 'technical' and 'tactical' stuff.