Iga Swiatek grew to become solely the fourth World No. 1 to win an Olympic medal and in addition captured her native Poland’s first top-three end in tennis on Friday, defeating Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-2, 6-1.
Throughout her post-match interview, nonetheless, Swiatek described why the victory was bittersweet.
The four-time (and three-time reigning) French Open champion had cemented herself because the Queen of Clay even earlier than the Summer time Olympics began in Paris, however her semifinal upset loss to Zheng Quinwen in straight units took a toll on her emotionally.
Swiatek was a heavy favourite to win the gold medal in singles, having solely misplaced as soon as at Roland Garros since 2020.
The Athletic’s Matthew Futterman passes alongside that the 2022 U.S. Open victor stated that “no
one would have needed to see how a lot she cried after the loss, for hours.”
“I feel if I wouldn’t play as we speak, I’d cry for per week. So I wanted to get it collectively. I cried for like six hours yesterday. It was actually robust,” Swiatek stated, per per Futterman.
The 23-year-old Swiatek — a famous fan of the King of Clay (Rafael Nadal) — added that her shortcoming within the Summer time Video games has given her further motivation.
“It’s loopy, actually,” Swiatek defined. “Due to the truth that I’m primary for like such a very long time and I received
so many tournaments. I actually felt that, that I can deal with like the whole lot,
you understand, and, and this match confirmed me that it’s nonetheless not the case. I
was perhaps just a little bit boastful with myself as a result of I believed that I had so
a lot stress earlier than that I feel I’m going to deal with this one as properly. Now I
really am actually motivated to work a bit more durable.”
