Iga Swiatek seeks more empathy from fans after facing online ‘hate’
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Iga Swiatek reached the Cincinnati Open quarter-finals after beating China's Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 on Aug 17.
PHOTO: AFP
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Cincinnati – Iga Swiatek called for an end to online hate and criticism and urged tennis fans to show more empathy. The world No. 1 received angry messages following her 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over China’s Zheng Qinwen at the Cincinnati Open on Thursday.
She beat Zheng to set up a quarter-final with Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, but appeared upset in her press conference after being criticised online for dropping the opening set.
“Today’s match wasn’t perfect. We all saw that. But the amount of hate and criticism me and my team get after losing a set is ridiculous,” the 22-year-old said.
“I want to encourage people to be more thoughtful when they comment on the Internet.
“We all sacrifice a lot. We’re all working really hard to be in that place. We’re always giving 100 per cent of what we can do every day.
“It’s sad for me to see that people I work with and myself, we’re really judged.”
The four-time Grand Slam winner said she experienced similar issues following her loss in the Dubai final in February, shortly after claiming the Doha title. “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,” she said.
“I’m putting a lot of energy for it not to hit too deeply, but I realised that sometimes people – I don’t know if they’re my fans or not but they want me to play better – cause me to waste a lot of energy to ignore them.”
World No. 5 Ons Jabeur said much of the abuse stemmed from people betting on the sport.
“Honestly, you win, you lose, you get hate messages no matter what you do,” said the Tunisian.
“We need more humanity, more nice people on this earth but I don’t think you can change the mentality of some bettors.
“They have nothing to do in their life and they’re spending money on you and probably, what, they lost a couple of bucks on Iga losing a set.”
In the men’s draw, Novak Djokovic extended his career-long domination of Gael Monfils with a 6-3, 6-2 win to reach the quarter-finals.
The Serbian second seed won his 19th match against the French showman without a defeat.
He follows top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz into the last eight. The Spaniard withstood frustrating rain delays to beat Tommy Paul 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (0-7), 6-3 and avenge last week’s loss to the American.
Alexander Zverev is also through after upsetting third seed Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. AFP, REUTERS
