Iga Swiatek grew to become only 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 mentioned that “no
one would have wished to see how a lot she cried after the loss, for hours.”
“I feel if I wouldn’t play immediately, I’d cry for every week. So I wanted to get it collectively. I cried for like six hours yesterday. It was actually robust,” Swiatek mentioned, 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 gained
so many tournaments. I actually felt that, that I can deal with like the whole lot,
, and, and this event confirmed me that it’s nonetheless not the case. I
was perhaps somewhat bit smug with myself as a result of I assumed that I had so
a lot strain earlier than that I feel I’m going to deal with this one as nicely. Now I
truly am actually motivated to work a bit tougher.”