Iga Swiatek says she is not dealing with injuries, but just feels sore after playing her first tournament in two months.
After winning her opening three United Cup matches, the Polish tennis star picked up back-to-back losses to Coco Gauff and Belinda Bencic.
Against Bencic, Swiatek won the first set, but then appeared to start to struggle physically as the Swiss stormed back to win 3-6 6-0 6-3.
Before losing to Bencic and Gauff, the reigning Wimbledon champion edged out Eva Lys in a two-and-a-half-hour thriller and also defeated Suzan Lamens and Maya Joint in straight sets.
Swiatek: I'm just super sore… The first tournament of the year costs the body differently
"Everything is fine. Just super sore. I guess first tournament of the year, it costs the body a bit differently than during the season. But I had similar experience last year also," the world No. 2 explained.
"I'll just get good recovery, couple days off. Also I know these team events. I love them but they really take a lot of energy from you. I still need to figure out how to balance that maybe in the future (smiling). I get so excited on the bench, yeah, it's almost like playing a match honestly.
"Yeah, it's all good. I for sure physically wasn't in the second set the best version of myself. Belinda really used it to push me. For sure, I'll try to get that covered for Australian Open and we'll see."
Despite Swiatek's losses to Gauff and Bencic, Poland still managed to win their semifinal and final ties against the United States and Switzerland, respectively.
After the top-ranked Polish female tennis player lost to the Swiss in the opening match of the tie, Hubert Hurkacz leveled things by beating Stan Wawrinka. Then, Katarzyna Kawa and Jan Zielinski completed Poland's comeback by beating Bencic and Jakub Paul.
For Swiatek and company, this was their first United Cup title. Previously, they twice finished as runners-up at the event.
