In her first piece at the Australian Open, the seventh seed discusses coping with the attention of being such a young major champion and dealing with her own expectations.
Coming into last year's Australian Open, I was less confident than I am now. Even though I had won a Grand Slam, I felt I had to prove it wasn't just the two weeks at the French Open when I played well.
After Roland Garros, I felt my whole world had turned upside down. The first few months were really hard in balancing my tennis work and off-court responsibilities.
had a lot of media attention - in Poland particularly but also abroad - and it was the first time I had signed a big partnership with a sponsor.
I remember coming to Australia - that was the first Grand Slam after I won in Paris - and being in a different time zone to Poland meant I could switch my phone off completely. It was really cool for me and gave me a lot of peaceful time.
But, leading up to the Australian Open, I was still really nervous for a week and my performance wasn't as good as at the French Open.
Right now, a year on and going into the 2022 Australian Open, I'm in my calm mood. I'm going to chill and see what's going to come.
After winning a Grand Slam you might think 'I can now be happy for the rest of my life' but it is totally the opposite to that. I wasn't aware it would be like that.
I expected a lot from myself and wanted to show people that I could play like that all of the time. It was kind of impossible.
So I needed some time to chill out a little bit. I had to just remember 'I'm 20 and still have lots of time to develop and to learn'.
Winning a Grand Slam is great but I think at my age it interrupted the peaceful process of growing up and developing my game.
Suddenly we had to rush to get to the same level, mentally and tennis-wise, to where my expectations were.
The period of the season where we play Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Olympics was the hardest one for me last year.
I did everything to be ready to defend my French Open title and I played solid tennis. But I felt people were expecting me to do more than reach the quarter-finals.
If I reached the quarter-finals in 2020 I would have been very happy. So I had to constantly remind myself that I don't have to win every match.
I could easily cut out all the things I read or heard from other people - but my expectations were the worst.
I did everything to be ready to defend my French Open title and I played solid tennis. But I felt people were expecting me to do more than reach the quarter-finals.
If I reached the quarter-finals in 2020 I would have been very happy. So I had to constantly remind myself that I don't have to win every match.
I could easily cut out all the things I read or heard from other people - but my expectations were the worst.
My psychologist Daria Abramowicz gave me a lot in terms of helping me understand myself more and understand why I am such a perfectionist.
There are examples of that in my everyday life, too. For example, I can't bake and I'm terrible at cooking yet I try to change every recipe so it is more healthy, with less sugar and less flour.
I start normally, adding the ingredients, but then think there is too much sugar or too much butter. So I take it out and then it comes out terribly.
My dad doesn't like to waste food but if I bake something like a brownie he just throws it out because it is really bad!
That's what a perfectionist does. Sometimes we change the things that should be much easier. Last year on the court I had a lot of ups and downs in terms of that.
As soon as I was playing with low expectations and high standards I played really well. Then after a really great two weeks my expectations went up again, so it was like a circle.
I need to keep my expectations level. This year I think it will be easier for me to do that because I understand the whole process better.
Last year, I won the Adelaide title after the Australian Open and then another title in Rome. I ended the season in the world's top 10 and qualified for the WTA Finals.
It really showed me that I belonged at the top of the WTA and hopefully I am going to stay there for a longer time to come. But, first of all, I needed to prove that to myself.
Working with Daria has helped me a lot and I'm not the same perfectionist I was a few years ago.
The whole of last season showed me that being in a constant rush to get ranking points and maintain your ranking doesn't make sense because there will always be something to be unhappy about.
If you are top five, you are going to be mad that you are not top three.
I need to remind myself I'm doing well. This season my expectations are to not have many expectations!
Iga Swiatek was talking to BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko at Melbourne Park.
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