Iga Swiatek’s Honest Take on Social Media’s Toxic Side: “Bots Are Writing Bad Stuff”

It doesn’t matter if players perform well or not, they are frequently targeted on social media with abuse, thanks to disgruntled gamblers in most cases. Iga Swiatek is one such player whose performance, certain actions, and decisions often draw criticism.

Swiatek drew heavy backlash after escaping a harsh punishment following her doping scandal last year. She also has to deal with negative comments due to her decision to continue working with her psychologist, Daria Abramowicz.

Swiatek has also been facing criticism due to her performance this season. Except for the Italian Open, the Pole failed to reach a semifinal in the other tournaments she has played, including at the French Open, where she is a four-time champion.

Swiatek is in Toronto to chase her first title of the season at the Canadian Open. At the pre-tournament press conference, she was asked to talk about the “good and bad” sides of social media.

Well, I think when I was younger, social media was like nicer sometimes. It was a way to actually connect with people, and now it’s a platform where you kind of share your life and what you’re doing, but it’s so, like, intense. Yeah, I would say intense that sometimes it’s hard to have that actually more intimate moments with some of your friends or some fans because it’s more and more, you know… so it becomes like less, I don’t know, exclusive or something.

Swiatek is pretty active on social media, where, apart from showing the brand deals and moments from her personal life, she also engages with fans through her reading challenges. And when it comes to the negative stuff, Swiatek said she just tries to ignore it.

But I think it depends how you spend your time on social media because if you post and if you try to have these little interactions, I think it can give you some nice moments, but if you go to your inbox where the bots are writing bad stuff, you know, you’re not going to have fun. So, it depends. You can you need to like filter yourself what you want to do there. And it’s sometimes it might be tricky because the algorithm will show you some stuff that you don’t want to see about yourself.

Iga Swiatek added

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Swiatek was last seen in action in the third round of Wimbledon. She lost the match to Alexandra Eala in straight sets.

Iga Swiatek will face Sara Bejlek to kick off her Canadian Open campaign

Iga Swiatek will start her campaign on the North American hardcourt swing against Sara Bejlek in the second round of the Canadian Open. The Czech ace went past Wang Xiyu in three sets to schedule the match against the 11-time WTA 1000 champion. Swiatek holds a 1-0 head-to-head lead over Bejlek as she beat the 20-year-old in this year’s French Open second round.

Swiatek last won a title at this level in last year’s Cincinnati Open with a straight-set win over Jasmine Paolini. In the Canadian event, the 25-year-old is a one-time semifinalist, reaching the stage in 2023.

Swiatek, who last won a tour-level title at the 2025 Korea Open, suffered a fourth-round defeat in Montreal last year. This year in the WTA 1000 events, Swiatek, apart from her run to the semifinal in Rome, made the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open and the Indian Wells Open.

Following the two WTA 1000 events, Swiatek will be gearing up for the US Open, which starts on August 30. The former World No.1, the champion in New York in 2022, failed to make it past the quarterfinals last year.

Swiatek is also on the verge of dropping out of the top 10. In Majors this year, the only time she made the quarterfinals was at the Australian Open.

Also read: Rennae Stubbs Explains Why Victoria Mboko Can Lift Grand Slam Trophy but Alexandra Eala ‘Will Never Win’ One