"Serena Williams said she took every negative thing she experienced & built this career on channeling the rage & anger" - Iga Swiatek's psychiatrist
Iga Swiatek and Serena Williams are two of the most mentally-strong players to have stepped on the court in tennis' modern era, one that has been characterized by not just relentless on-court pressure, but also the 24x7 social media scrutiny off it.
Such has been the impact of the things people say online that even Grand Slam final-winning speeches — read Coco Gauff — are now being centered around them.
Speaking about the same, Iga Swiatek's mental coach Daria Abramowicz talked about using negative feedback to fuel one's ambitions in an interview with The National News.
Taking particular note of Serena Williams' quote about building a career off of anger from her Vogue piece, Abramowicz highlighted the importance of channeling negativity into something positive.
“I really like this quote from Serena Williams from the Vogue article she wrote last year right before ending her career," Abramowicz said.
"She said that she took every negative thing that happened and every negative thing that she heard or experienced and she built this career of hers on channeling the rage and anger that came from that and changing it into something positive," she added.
"It’s a little bit harder to gain motivation from hate because it’s not rational and it’s a little bit easier to reframe the criticism" - Iga Swiatek's mental coach on using criticism as an agent for improvement
Dubbing Serena Williams a "good example" and someone who is always looking to improve her game, Daria Abramowicz, who has partnered with Iga Swiatek for the better part of her career, reiterated the importance of finding positivity even in the most negative things.
"And I think that’s a good example of finding something to improve, to finding something positive in negativity," Abramowicz said. "But it’s not common to everyone.”
Circling back to the topic of online hate, Abramowicz said it should not become a player's motivation as such strong emotions can cloud one's judgment, making it difficult for them to think logically.
“But it’s really tough to use logic in the moment when emotions hit so hard, when we feel injustice, when we feel that something is not right," Iga Switaek's mental coach said. "So with hate, we work completely differently. With hate we try to refocus, refocusing is a technique and strategy that we use often."
"Refocusing on resources, refocusing on strengths, refocusing on things that we can control,” she added. “So it’s a little bit harder to gain motivation from hate because it’s not rational and it’s a little bit easier to reframe the criticism.”
Iga Swiatek, earlier this year, became the first player to have played 100 tour-level matches as a reigning World No. 1 since Williams.