Swiatek breaks another lance: "We can no longer feel safe on the internet"

Iga Swiatek went from gritting her teeth in the first round to putting on a show two days later, advancing to the third round of the 2024 US Open without dropping a set. After handling the initial challenges, the press conference shifted to more current issues, such as Caroline Garcia's latest post denouncing the severe insults that tennis players receive daily from anonymous individuals on social media. As usual, the WTA No.1 offered an insightful perspective on the matter, while also taking the time to analyze her improvement on the court.

To the third round quickly

"Today, I felt that I could play in a more solid way, making better decisions. I always try to follow the guidelines set by my coach, but often I study how my opponent plays, watch some videos on the internet, not too many, just to understand their playing style. Tactically, I always trust what my coach says; he spends hours watching videos of my opponents. In my case, I have a lot of work to do, so I prefer to recover after matches."

Caroline Garcia and her social media denouncement

"It happened to me a couple of times, but now I don't check that inbox anymore; I focus on reading messages from my close people. There is a lot of hatred out there, and I try to avoid it whenever I navigate the internet. Is it related to betting? I don't know the numbers; I never delved into those topics, but surely people get very excited when it comes to winning or losing money. It probably has a significant impact, but I don't know the figures; I guess it's easy to verify. It would be good if we all followed 'Caro's' steps, trying to educate people, or perhaps waiting for some solutions in the future, maybe using AI to make it safer for us. I feel that we can no longer be on the internet and feel secure; we have to be very careful about what we read."

The aftermath of the Olympics

"The sense of joy grew after a couple of days, once I stopped thinking about the match I lost. I think I needed to digest that and, after a while, I did. Then I started to be much prouder of myself. That's when I realized the baggage I was carrying on my shoulders, so I am happy to have ended up with a medal and proved to myself that I could achieve it. Perhaps finishing third in any tournament is a good result for me, but at the Olympics, it looks a bit different. Then to share the podium moment and feel that we are part of our sport made everything much better than any other tournament."

Improvement from the first match

"It's not that I have to do a lot of work on the mental aspect; I always have the tools with me, but sometimes it's challenging to use them. I couldn't really focus well in my first-round match, so I aimed to improve on that. I gave myself time to accept that I can't be perfect, but step by step, I managed to enhance that focus, have a better mindset. Generally, I don't feel good on the court when I have too high expectations; that's when I make wrong decisions on the court. What I do is try to reset and remember that I don't have to play perfect tennis all the time."

A better day than night

"I don't like night matches; then it's harder for me to recover, although I understand that this is the same for other players. I like night matches when they happen once or twice per tournament, but in 2023, I struggled a lot when I had five matches in two weeks. It's not easy, although I'm improving a lot on this matter; it's not as frustrating anymore. What I do is have coffee before the match, sometimes I take caffeine energy shots, it's not just mental aspects. Then your body is full of adrenaline, and it's very challenging to bring it down, but it's part of the job; I've learned to sleep better. Tennis is a tough sport in terms of time zones; you can be scheduled in both ways, so you have to be ready."

Would you recommend a child to be a professional tennis player?

"I don't know; I'll start thinking about it when I have my own children; it's hard to judge right now. Surely, it's not the easiest sport; you need to really enjoy individual competition. I know many people who would fit better in a team sport. Parents are the ones to judge, but they should never push a child; they should keep an open mind and not be stubborn when choosing a sport. One has to start by having fun, and if the person is good enough, they can try to go professional. Once that person becomes an adult, let them decide for themselves."

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Swiatek rompe otra lanza: “Ya no podemos sentirnos seguros en internet”