NEW YORK — There are many things that Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1 and the queen of the tennis the past two years, is very good at.
Not letting her stress and frustrations spill into her game? She would be the first one to admit that part is a work in progress. Life inside Swiatek’s head these days can feel like skidding across a knife’s edge at high speed.
On a day like the first Tuesday of the U.S. Open, it takes every ounce of will for her to stay upright. She committed 41 unforced errors in surviving a 6-4, 7-6(6) battle against Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia, who was 6-3 up in the second set tiebreak.
Little joy and no celebration greeted the win. Just a very hot red face and too many thoughts about what had unfolded.
Iga Swiatek looked at odds with herself in during her first-round match in New York. (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
Two days later, on the same tennis court, against a similarly overmatched opponent in Ena Shibahara, Swiatek eased to one of her trademark bagel-and-breadstick combos, the kind of casual beatdown that has taken her to almost 120 weeks at the top of women’s tennis.
What gives?
In recent years, Swiatek has become more guarded about the inner workings of her mind. It is the part of the tennis player’s self that has never…
