LONDON: Iga Swiatek hopes her resounding Wimbledon win will help reduce what she describes as ‘unpleasant’ treatment from some media outlets in her home country.
The six-time Grand Slam champion opened up about her relationship with the press after becoming the first player from her country to win a Wimbledon title. Swiatek stormed past Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0, in less than an hour to become the first woman to win a final at the tournament without dropping a game since 1911. She also dropped just two games in her semi-final match against Belinda Bencic.
This year, Swiatek has experienced a resurgence on the grass after what has been a roller-coaster past few months in the sport. Between July 2024 and May this year, she hadn’t reached the final of any tournament. During this period, she also served a brief suspension for an anti-doping violation after taking a contaminated medication used to treat sleep issues. A tribunal stated there was no evidence that she in any way tried to deliberately consume a substance to enhance her performance.
It hasn’t been a smooth journey for Swiatek, who admits she has felt heat from the press back home concerning her performance on the court and who she has in her team.
“The past months, how the media sometimes describe me, and I got to say unfortunately, the Polish media, how they treated me and my team, it wasn’t really pleasant,” Swiatek said after winning her maiden Wimbledon trophy.
“I hope they will just leave me alone and let me do my job because you can see that we know what we are doing, and I have the best people around me.”
Swiatek didn’t mention any specific publication or journalist when speaking about her relationship with the media.
“I know people want more and more, but it’s my own process and my own life and my own career,” she continued.
“Hopefully, I’m going to have freedom from them, as well, to let me do my job the way I want it.”
Wimbledon is Swiatek’s first title of any sort won on grass during her WTA career. Although she did win the junior title seven years ago when she defeated Emma Raducanu en route to the title.
Now that she has broken new ground on the grass, how does her Wimbledon triumph compare to her other major successes? She is a four-time French Open champion, as well as a US Open champion.
“The fact it’s on grass, for sure, it makes it more special, I would say, and more unexpected,” she admits.
“It feels like the emotions are bigger because at Roland Garros I know I can play well. Here (at Wimbledon), I wasn’t sure of that. I also needed to prove that to myself.”
Swiatek dropped only 35 games in her run to the Wimbledon title. This is the fewest dropped at the tournament since Martina Navratilova in 1990.
