Iga Swiatek claims she ‘messed up’ in shock Olympics defeat
Iga Swiatek has revealed what went wrong in her Paris Olympics semi-final defeat, that saw her hopes of a gold medal come to an end.
Swiatek was beaten by Chinese No.1 Qinwen Zheng, 6-2 7-5, to bring her 25-match winning streak at Stade Roland Garros to a surprise end.
Zheng had never beaten Swiatek in their six previous meetings, but has now become the first Asian player to reach the tennis singles final at the Olympic Games.
When speaking to Eurosport Poland after the match, Swiatek was clearly very emotional and explained how she thought the stress got to her.
“I just had a hole in my backhand,” claimed Swiatek. “It happens rarely because it is usually my most solid strike. I was not technically well positioned because of the stress and the fact that I played my games day by day. We didn’t have time to adjust that and work on that.
“I know that’s not the justification but I tried to correct that during the match. Today it didn’t work at all. So she used that to win the game.”
It appeared that the match was going to head to a deciding set when Swiatek led 4-0, but Zheng went onto win seven of the last eight games to snatch the second set and consequently the match.
Swiatek commented on this before the interview came to an abrupt end, as she broke down in tears in the media zone in Paris, “It’s the result of the match. So I just messed up.”
1149 – Iga Swiatek was unbeaten at Roland Garros for 1149 days, winning 25 consecutive matches, along with a 47-4 completed sets record and claiming 10 sets by a score of 6-0 over that span. Run.#Olympics #Paris2024 | @Olympics @Paris2024 @ITFTennis @WTA pic.twitter.com/SmZIWD0jB4
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) August 1, 2024
Despite the obvious disappointment of losing her chance at an Olympic gold, Swiatek still has a chance to medal later today when she takes on Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the match for bronze.
Zheng will move onto the gold medal match, that takes place on Saturday, against Donna Vekic.
Inside the baseline…
It was a huge shock on Court Philippe-Chatrier, given Iga Swiatek’s huge pedigree and dominance on clay courts over the years. However, her explanation of being stressed does make sense, as she did not look comfortable from the beginning of the match and Qinwen Zheng is a nightmare person to play against in that situation. It was very unlike Swiatek to drop a lead like that in the second set and she will surely have some regrets, but the Pole has to pick herself back up to try and claim Poland’s first ever tennis medal at the Olympics.
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