"The amount of hate and criticism me & my team get after even losing a set is just ridiculous; it's sad for me to see" - Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 Cincinnati Open on Thursday, downing Qinwen Zheng 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in three sets. However, it was her post-match press conference that turned out to be the talk of the day on the WTA Tour.
Addressing the press even before a single question could be put to her, the World No. 1 admitted that she did not play a perfect match against the Chinese, for which she believed she was sure to get an obscene amount of hate and criticism from fans.
Swiatek's comments were exclusively directed at those commenting on social media, and the 22-year-old urged them to be a little more thoughtful before saying such things about players.
The four-time Grand Slam champion called on the reporters to help players in this regard, seeing as they sacrificed enough of their lives daily without having to put up with such negativity on top of that.
"For sure today's match wasn't perfect. We all saw that. But the amount of hate and criticism that me and my team get after even losing a set is just ridiculous. I want to kind of encourage people to be more thoughtful when they comment on Internet," Swiatek said.
"It would be great if you guys would kind of help us, you know, make it happen as journalists, because we all sacrifice a lot, and we are all working really hard to be in that place. I mean, we are always giving 100% of what we can do every day," she added.
Iga Swiatek stated that it was "sad" for her to see her team bear the brunt of it as well, and she hoped that fans could be more positive and see how she problem-solved on the court to grab the win at the end instead of dwelling on her mistakes.
"It's kind of sad for me to see that people I work with and myself, we are really judged. I would like to, yeah, encourage people to be more thoughtful and to also focus on the positive side of what we are doing, because today, even though I didn't start the match well, I would love for people to see how I problem-solved and how I really got out of troubles," Iga Swiatek said.
"Even though for sure I didn't feel, you know, my best game or that it's going to be a good performance in the first set, I was able actually to do that, and it's because I'm doing a lot of work physically and mentally also. Off court I'm trying to be the best kind of player and person as possible. I wanted to just kind of encourage people on the Internet to be more positive," she added.
"It's not only in the public area but also e-mails I get and messages, and my team, as well, actually, which is pretty crazy" - Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek then spoke a little about how the match unfolded, pointing out that the wind made it tricky for her at times and that she needed a little time to visually get used to the stadium. She felt she got much better as the game progressed, as evidenced by the one-sided scoreline in the final two sets.
"Do I enjoy playing three-setters? Well, obviously I'd love to play two-setters, but for sure today wasn't easy. The conditions were tricky with the wind. I didn't play a lot of matches on that stadium, so I also needed to kind of get used to, like, get used to it visually," Iga Swiatek said.
"But I'm happy that I, exactly, I problem-solved. In second set and third I played much better and much more solid game," she added.
Regardless, Swiatek knew in the back of her mind that fans on the internet will not consider all that and just lambast her for playing poorly in the first set. In fact, she admitted that she and her team also got e-mails criticizing her directly, which is why she chose to address the media about the issue before things got out of hand.
"But for sure, yeah, seeing everything that's going on on the Internet after some days when I don't play my best tennis and just have a moment of, you know, a little bit worse performance, I feel that world would be such a better place if we didn't judge each other so quickly and write that."
"It's not only in the public area but also e-mails I get and messages, and my team, as well, actually, which is pretty crazy. That's why I wanted to kind of speak out about that," Iga Swiatek said.
Following her victory against Qinwen Zheng, Iga Swiatek will take on reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Cincinnati Open.