Iga Swiatek has confirmed that practicing with tape on her mouth was something she was advised by her team and revealed she understood it was something to improve her endurance. During the weekend, Swiatek was spotted practicing in Montreal with her mouth taped.
Swiatek’s move sparked curiosity as some wondered if it was something done to improve the Pole’s nose breathing on the court. To no one’s surprise, Swiatek was asked in her pre-tournament press conference the reason behind that move.
No, but, it’s harder to breathe when you’re only breathing with your nose and it’s easier for my heart rate to go up, you know? And I think it has something to do with endurance, but I am not gonna explain you properly, because I’m not an expert.
Sometimes I don’t get the things they tell me to do either. I am doing that for a long time now. So yeah, it got pretty easy, but for sure you can see the difference in, you know, how everything you do on court is getting more and more hard with that tape on your mouth.
So I guess, it’s the way to kind of work on my endurance by not having me, you know, run so fast and do extreme things,” Swiatek said. Meanwhile, Swiatek is having a first-round bye in Montreal as the top-seeded player. After a first-round bye, Swiatek will be playing against either Karolina Pliskova or Zhu Lin in her opener at the tournament.
After playing at the National Bank Open in Toronto twice, 22-year-old Swiatek is now playing in Montreal for the first time in her life. In Montreal, Swiatek is among the top favorites for the title. Swiatek recently won Warsaw and she arrived to Montreal in fine form.
