Iga Swiatek calls for an end to online hate and criticism – ‘It’s sad. We all sacrifice a lot’
Iga Swiatek has lamented the constant criticism and hate spewed at tennis players on the Internet, saying she wants fans to focus more on the positives instead of the negatives.
The four-time Grand Slam champion booked her place in the last eight of the Cincinnati Open as she secured a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Zheng Qinwen.
With the result, Swiatek reached her 12th consecutive quarter-final of the 2023 season yet she was still criticised on social media and received several hurtful messages.
The Pole pleaded for more kindness during her post-match press conference, saying: “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 the Internet.
“It’s kind of sad for me to see that people I work with and myself, we are really judged. I would like to 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 trouble.”
She added: “We all sacrifice a lot, and we are all working really hard to be in that place. We are always giving 100% of what we can do every day.”
Swiatek has already won four titles this year as she successfully defended her trophies in Doha, Stuttgart and Roland Garros, and also won her maiden title at home in Warsaw.
Yet some “fans” will always find fault and it is taking its toll.
“I also saw that after Dubai and Doha, when I won a tournament and then was in the final, I was pretty proud of my results but people really just saw the last match and that I lost in the final, and they shouldn’t,” the world No 1 said.
“The thing is that I’m putting a lot of energy for it not to hit too deeply, but I just realised that sometimes people that – I don’t know if they are my fans or not, but obviously they want me to play better – they cause me to really kind of waste a lot of energy to ignore them.
“It’s just unnecessary because I know how much work we are putting and how much everybody sacrifices, me and my team. I wish people could also see that and not judge straightforwardly.”
