Paris: Speaking with an assuredness of a champion wise beyond her years, eyes intermittently emerging beneath the safety of her cap, Iga Swiatek still breaks into a nervous smile at the mere mention of her idol, Rafael Nadal.
The Pole is embracing all that comes with the build-up to defending her first major, fit, focused, even winning the same lead-up event as the Spaniard in Rome.
Like Nadal, Swiatek announced herself emphatically on the Grand Slam stage at 19, with victory at Roland-Garros.
She could do worse than pick the brain of a 13-time champion in Paris on what it takes to go two from two.
First, though, she’d have to drum up the courage to say “hello”.
“Maybe we're gonna have a chance to (discuss) that later, but we just had like a quick small talk last year, and yesterday he said hi to me. For now I'm too overwhelmed to even say hi,” Swiatek grinned.
“I'm a big fan of his, and if I'm gonna have a chance to ask him some stuff and also learn from him, it would be great, but we are both busy, so I know it's gonna be hard to schedule that.”
Since the teenager blitzed all before her in Paris seven months ago, she had moments of doubt as to whether she would be able to back it up and land another title.
There was relief when a second trophy followed in Adelaide in February against Belinda Bencic, then number three came on clay at the Foro Italico earlier this month against Karolina Pliskova.
It had been four months since her Roland-Garros run before she emerged from quarantine in Australia to face her best friend, Kaja Juvan in the opening round of the Gippsland Trophy.
Incidentally, the pair will square off again in the first round in Paris.
It's not easy to play against your best friend. It wasn't nice to see that, because one of us is going to lose,” she said. “For sure that match in February is giving me more confidence. I'm just trying to, as well, find a distance to that.
“We are friends, but on court everybody is equal. I am actually good at forgetting that I'm playing against my best friend and just playing tennis and just hitting the ball.”
Swiatek revealed on Polish television show My First Time last year, the three most important numbers in her phone were: “My dad, my sister and right now, Daria Abramowicz.”