Latest news with #IgaŚwiątek
Time of India
2 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Is Iga Swiatek's patterned misbehavior a subtle indication to a bigger problem?
Image via Instagram/ Iga Świątek Iga Świątek's meteoric rise to the top of women's tennis has been defined by her relentless baseline power and ice-cold focus. Yet behind the trophies and Grand Slam titles lies a growing thread of controversy—marked by a pattern of tense on-court moments, emotional flare-ups, and now, an increasingly talked-about 'frosty' handshake with Victoria Azarenka at the 2024 French Open. The brief, awkward post-match exchange—void of eye contact or conversation—added to a string of moments that have sparked debate about Świątek's competitive persona. From time violations and umpire clashes to icy handshakes and near-misses with ball kids, questions are beginning to surface: is this simply elite intensity in motion, or the beginning of a behavioral pattern that demands closer scrutiny? In this piece, we will make an attempt to analyse the different instances of the tennis star's slip-ups. Bad Homburg Time-wasting Accusations Incident TIME DISPUTE! AZARENKA CALLS OUT ŚWIĄTEK FOR SERVING SLOWLY | BAD HOMBURG GERMANY R16 JUNE 24, 2025 At the Bad Homburg Open, veteran Victoria Azarenka publicly accused Świątek of deliberately delaying play. During a critical service game, Azarenka complained that 'every time she's down in a game, she's taking her time. Like over the time. And you're not checking. Every time.' Although Świątek went on to win the match 6-4, 6-4, the incident sparked debate: was she exploiting rule ambiguities or merely regulating her rhythm? Umpire Showdown at Western and Southern Open, Cincinnati UMPIRE WARNS ŚWIĄTEK TO STOP DOING THIS | CINCINNATI OPEN R32 AUGUST 14, 2024 The drama continued at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati when Świątek tangled with chair umpire Marija Cicak over a time violation. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo Cicak admonished her that 'It is not your time… you were stood there for another five to seven seconds for no reason and you can at least turn around' . Though Świątek later downplayed any tension—insisting 'I respect Marija Cicak'—critics questioned whether this pattern of official challenges undermines her composed reputation. The Ball Kid Backlash Iga Swiatek's Ball Kid Controversy at Indian Wells In March at Indian Wells, frustration boiled over when Świątek accidentally—or intentionally—smashed a ball toward a ball kid during a semi-final against Mirra Andreeva. The near-miss drew boos from the crowd and a storm of 'poor sportsmanship' posts online . Świątek later apologised, attributing the outburst to momentary match fatigue, but the incident added fuel to her controversial dossier. Frosty Greetings Jelena Ostapenko vs Iga Swiatek On-Court Interview ꟾ Stuttgart Open 2025 QF Świątek's on-court coolness has sometimes extended into the handshake. After dropping a three-setter to Jelena Ostapenko at Stuttgart, she offered a noticeably 'dry handshake' that fans derided as unsporting . Social-media critics blasted her for failing to look her opponent in the eye, while defenders argued it was simply a brief, high-pressure moment. Cold Handshakes and Spectacular Meltdowns Iga Swiatek Fires Back at Victoria Azarenka's Accusations in Fiery Grass Court Clash! 🔥 Most recently, Świątek made headlines for an awkward post-match handshake with Victoria Azarenka at the 2024 French Open. The brief, tension-filled exchange—lacking eye contact or a word—was widely described as 'frosty' by media outlets like Express UK. Though neither player addressed it publicly, the interaction fueled speculation about underlying friction or rising emotional intensity in Świątek's on-court demeanor. Gamesmanship or Growing Pains? Even the low-key double-bounce incident against Dayana Yastremska at Indian Wells drew ire. Spectators claimed Świątek capitalised on a missed call, with one fan tweeting, 'Despicable sportsmanship' . Yet others cautioned that split-second rallies can obscure intent, stressing that umpires bear the primary responsibility. Across five continents and dozens of high-stakes matches, Iga Świątek's competitive fire has occasionally sparked controversy. From time-wasting allegations to frosty handshakes and umpire showdowns, these flashpoints reveal a player unafraid to push boundaries—whether by design or in the heat of the moment. While some see a worrisome pattern of misbehavior, others interpret it as the byproduct of elite-level intensity. As Świątek's tenure at the top continues, the tennis world will watch closely: will these incidents evolve into genuine rivalries and strategic edge, or fade as isolated lapses in an otherwise stellar career? Let us know what you think. Game On Season 1 continues with Mirabai Chanu's inspiring story. Watch Episode 2 here.
CNN
3 days ago
- Sport
- CNN
Iga Świątek slams ‘intense' calendar as players feel the grind to protect rankings
Iga Świątek criticized the relentless tennis calendar on Sunday, with the former world number one saying that players should not be forced to compete in more than 20 tournaments a year to maintain their rankings. Now ranked fourth in the world, Świątek described being trapped in a system where she had to choose between representing her country and focusing on herself after she reluctantly skipped Poland's Billie Jean King Cup qualifier in April. The 11-month grind has been one of the cornerstones of the lawsuit filed by the Professional Tennis Players' Association (PTPA) against the sport's governing bodies in March after the union described it as 'unsustainable.' 'The scheduling is super intense, it's too intense. There's no point for us to play over 20 tournaments in a year,' Świątek told reporters when asked about the biggest challenge to players in terms of mental health. 'Sometimes, we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we're going to get a zero in the ranking. 'I think these kind of obligations and the rules about mandatory tournaments just put pressure on us … I think people would still watch tennis, maybe even more, if we played less tournaments. The quality would be better.' Świątek is the eighth seed at Wimbledon this year and she faces Polina Kudermetova in the first round on Tuesday. The clay court specialist with four French Open crowns fell in the semifinals at Roland Garros this year and she quickly switched her focus to grass which has historically been her weakest surface. She reached her first grass court final on Saturday at the Bad Homburg Open where she was left in tears after losing to top seed Jessica Pegula, but Świątek is happy with her improvement on grass as she comes to grips with the faster surface. 'It's not like a huge change. It's not like 180 degrees change. I wouldn't say now suddenly everything is perfect because it's still a difficult surface. It's still tricky,' Świątek said. 'Every year, it feels like it's a little bit easier to get used to the surface and then you have more time to just develop as a player.'
CNN
3 days ago
- Sport
- CNN
Iga Świątek slams ‘intense' calendar as players feel the grind to protect rankings
Iga Świątek criticized the relentless tennis calendar on Sunday, with the former world number one saying that players should not be forced to compete in more than 20 tournaments a year to maintain their rankings. Now ranked fourth in the world, Świątek described being trapped in a system where she had to choose between representing her country and focusing on herself after she reluctantly skipped Poland's Billie Jean King Cup qualifier in April. The 11-month grind has been one of the cornerstones of the lawsuit filed by the Professional Tennis Players' Association (PTPA) against the sport's governing bodies in March after the union described it as 'unsustainable.' 'The scheduling is super intense, it's too intense. There's no point for us to play over 20 tournaments in a year,' Świątek told reporters when asked about the biggest challenge to players in terms of mental health. 'Sometimes, we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we're going to get a zero in the ranking. 'I think these kind of obligations and the rules about mandatory tournaments just put pressure on us … I think people would still watch tennis, maybe even more, if we played less tournaments. The quality would be better.' Świątek is the eighth seed at Wimbledon this year and she faces Polina Kudermetova in the first round on Tuesday. The clay court specialist with four French Open crowns fell in the semifinals at Roland Garros this year and she quickly switched her focus to grass which has historically been her weakest surface. She reached her first grass court final on Saturday at the Bad Homburg Open where she was left in tears after losing to top seed Jessica Pegula, but Świątek is happy with her improvement on grass as she comes to grips with the faster surface. 'It's not like a huge change. It's not like 180 degrees change. I wouldn't say now suddenly everything is perfect because it's still a difficult surface. It's still tricky,' Świątek said. 'Every year, it feels like it's a little bit easier to get used to the surface and then you have more time to just develop as a player.'
New York Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Iga Swiatek and Alex Eala achieve firsts on the grass as Wimbledon comes into view
'I didn't expect to win this match' isn't a phrase that comes out of a five-time Grand Slam champion's mouth very often. But after Iga Świątek cruised past Jasmine Paolini 6-1, 6-3 to reach the first WTA Tour grass-court final of her career, it was the first thing on her mind. Perhaps Paolini being a Wimbledon finalist last year was a factor. Perhaps Świątek never going beyond the quarterfinals in south-west London was too. But for 16 games Friday in Bad Homburg, it was the Pole who looked like the master of the grass. She's looked that way for most of the tournament in Germany, using her serve like she hasn't done for a while to get out of adversity against the powerful players that have troubled her in the past. Advertisement Against Paolini, however, Świątek was dominant. Her confidence on her forehand oozed out into heavy, sharply angled balls that kept Paolini pinned behind the baseline, stopping her from coming into the net, where she has the edge on Świątek. She leapt on Paolini's serve at every opportunity, zipping return winners past her opponent — something she has been more familiar with happening to her in recent times. Świątek broke Paolini five times and had break points for a sixth, ultimately easing into her first final since last year's French Open, in which she will face world No. 3 Jessica Pegula. It caps a strange 12 months for Świątek, in which she has had her less-than-perfect results scrutinized at her best events over and above her improvements across the calendar. She is No. 3 in the WTA Tour rankings race, just a few hundred points behind No. 2 Coco Gauff, and made the semifinals at both the Australian and French Opens. She was a point from the final in Melbourne and she has made the semifinals of five other tournaments, including in Bad Homburg. But she has become synonymous with era-defining excellence on clay, and so her dips from that excellence, which have included at times heavy defeats, have taken greater space than her successes. The same cannot be said for Alexandra Eala, who so memorably beat Świątek at the Miami Open in March. On the same day as Świątek's success, Eala, 20, became the first Filipino to reach a WTA Tour final, beating Varvara Gracheva 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 at Eastbourne in the UK. It's the latest in a succession of firsts for Eala and Filipino tennis, and it is not one of her biggest wins: in Miami, she beat Madison Keys and Jelena Ostapenko, two more Grand Slam champions, as well as Świątek. But Eala's use of angle, a devastatingly powerful and disguised down-the-line forehand, and an improved serve — which has looked attackable throughout her rise inside the WTA top 100 — could foretell more success on the grass, a surface which appears to suit her game. Her mastery of the wind on the south coast of the UK, which buffeted across the courts and tested players' limits, also showed off her ability to adapt the length of her swing and to redirect an incoming ball rather than swinging out on every shot. Advertisement At Wimbledon, she will achieve another first. Eala will play defending champion Barbora Krejčíková on Centre Court, and with Krejčíková having withdrawn from Eastbourne with a thigh injury, the ingredients are there for another announcement of her ability to the tennis world. First, Eala will go in search of her first WTA Tour title, with a final against Maya Joint Saturday, the same day that Świątek and Pegula will play. (Photos: Getty Images)
New York Times
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
French Open women's semifinals: Iga Swiatek's serve and what next for Lois Boisson
Follow The Athletic's French Open coverage Welcome to the French Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament. On day 12 at Roland Garros, one of the most remarkable streaks in modern tennis ended, a home hope looked forward and a doubles winner had to take a tough loss. Reflecting on the brilliance of a streak that ended in a 0-6 set right after losing that set is a tough ask, but it's exactly what Iga Świątek did following her defeat to Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open semifinals. 'I love playing here, so for sure I'm happy that I was fortunate enough to play so many great tournaments here. Even this one, you know, I feel like I played better than weeks before,' she said in her news conference. Advertisement 'So for sure, I'm just happy that I have this place to come back to every year and just try to push myself.' Before her last-four loss, Świątek had won 26 French Open matches in a row. She had entered this year's event as she has every event this season: with the ambition to win it while ingraining fundamental changes to her tennis, alongside coach Wim Fissette. During an interview with The Athletic earlier this year, Świątek explained that the evolution she wants in her tennis — playing with more shape, and ultimately variety, after a series of losses in which she hit the ball too flat under pressure and made mistakes — will only become apparent over a longer period. 'It's hard to see the changes because they're little. I know. They only seem big on a bigger horizon,' she said. She now has a long period of the season in which she has very few ranking points to defend, in which she will be able to test and iterate on ideas without the pressure of 4,000 points on her back, which she had carried through the Madrid Open, the Italian Open and Roland Garros. One of those ideas will need to enhance one shot: Her serve. Calling it a weakness is overstating the case, but in her match against Sabalenka, the ease with which the world No. 1 could steal free points in comparison to Świątek was eye-opening. It is hard to win free points on clay, especially against a returner as imperious and opportunistic as Sabalenka. But having a first serve that wins the point less than one time out of two, as Świątek managed in the opening set, is just not enough for someone of her standing in the sport. In her previous match against Elina Svitolina, she ended proceedings with three aces in one game. The small changes are there. They may only seem big on a bigger horizon James Hansen Whither Loïs Boisson? Good question. A few weeks ago, she probably figured she'd play a match or two at Roland Garros and then return to the ITF circuit, where she is 14-6 on the year, to try and reach the top 100. She's there now, in the 60s, after going from French No. 24 to French No. 1 in the space of a fortnight. She can think about some different tournaments, and maybe even a wild card into Wimbledon. At the very least there will be qualifying for SW19. Advertisement 'Of course the program will change. It won't be what was planned at the beginning, considering my upcoming ranking,' Boisson said. But she's not planning any other changes to her team or her life: 'It works well, and I don't see why I would change much.' Coco Gauff, who knows something about sudden exposure had some words of advice for her about the spotlight, especially given the dearth of top French women. She should stay true to herself and what the people around her expect, not anyone else. 'I think she has her head on her right shoulders,' Gauff said. 'It's going to be probably a weird few months for her, but I think the more it happens, the more you get used to it.' Matt Futterman Taylor Townsend and, well, anyone is turning out to be a pretty formidable mixed-doubles team. Townsend partnered Donald Young to the mixed doubles final at the U.S. Open in September, long after everyone figured Young had left tennis behind. They lost in the final to Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy, which is becoming a bit of a tough draw for Townsend in mixed doubles. This week in Paris, she partnered Evan King, who had had a fine but unremarkable doubles career until the past few months. King, 33, joined up with fellow American Christian Harrison at the back end of the 2024 season, and the duo has been on a tear in 2025, winning two titles and 24 matches together to enter the top three of the ATP Doubles Race to Turin, in which the eight best pairs of the year compete. King and Harrison are in the men's doubles semifinals, where they will face British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski, but Townsend and King went to the final of the mixed doubles. They lost, as is becoming a bit too familiar to Townsend, to Errani and Vavassori. Advertisement Townsend also continued her women's doubles partnership with Kateřina Siniaková. They won Wimbledon last year and Australian Open in January, which made them the top seeds in Paris but lost in the quarterfinals. Matt Futterman Tell us what you noticed on the 12th day… (Top photo of Iga Świątek: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic)
