“War is going on” Iga Swiatek expresses her disappointment in seeing players not showing support to Ukraine
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Iga Swiatek
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek has emerged out as a good leader of the WTA Tour ever since she ascended to the top of the WTA rankings after the sudden retirement of 3-time Grand Slam champion Ash Barty. Swiatek officially became the World No. 1 after the conclusion of the 2022 Miami Open where she claimed a hattrick of WTA-1000 titles and also captured the Sunshine Double.
Iga is currently on a streak of five consecutive titles which includes three titles on hardcourts and two on Clay. Her streak started at the 2022 Qatar Open, the first WTA-1000 event of the season. She followed it immediately with the 2022 Indian Wells Open and the win in Miami. In the Golden Swing, she won the WTA-500 Stuttgart Open and then made a successful title defence at the 2022 Italian Open to win her 5th successive trophy and capture four of the five WTA-1000 events played so far as she skipped the Madrid Open after winning in Stuttgart.
When Iga captured the title in Qatar, the war between Ukraine and Russia had broken out just a couple of days ago and Swiatek dedicated her victory to the citizens of Ukraine who were dragged into the unnecessary war. Almost breaking into tears, Iga promised to sport a ribbon on her kit to show support to Ukraine, a practice she has continued to date but has been stopped by many of her colleagues, much to her disappointment.
“I’m still trying to find the right balance because first of all my voice is heard loud and clear when I do my job well and I win. I’m aware I don’t know everything about the world – I’m still only 20 and I’m still learning. I read a lot of books and I’m trying to educate myself to speak more about different matters. One issue I am continuing to highlight is the war in Ukraine. Wearing a Ukrainian-coloured ribbon on my kit is something I’m continuing to do to show my support.
“I feel like it is a good way of reminding people there is still a war going on. Many players have already started not to wear ribbons, they only did that at the beginning when the war started. Ukrainians are going to feel the impact of the war for many, many years so I wanted to be consistent in what I do and show the little support I can give,” said Iga speaking with Jonathan Jurejko for BBC.
“There’s no simple solution” Iga Swiatek on the Wimbledon situation
As Swiatek is now the tour leader in rankings, her opinion is valued a lot and the 20-year old Pole is quite aware of that. With Wimbledon and LTA banning all Russian and Belarusian players from playing in the UK this year, the ATP and WTA have decided to stip the 2022 Wimbledon Championships of all the ranking points and have made the Grand Slam nothing but a high-paying exhibition event.
“In my news conference after I beat Lesia Tsurenko, I was asked about the Wimbledon decision and I was trying to say what I think but without offending anybody, because I want sports to connect people and to make us united. That’s because there is not a simple solution in that situation.
“Generally, I feel that with my position I should take a stand and say what I feel about issues. But on the other hand, I want to do that in a smart way that is not going to interrupt my preparation for matches and I’m not going to lose focus because of that,” added Swiatek showing the maturity she possesses.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)