“Have no idea,” Tomasz Wiktorowski discards commentator who claimed Iga Swiatek does not have a plan B

WTA World No. 1 Iga Swiatek's coach Tomasz Wiktorowski does not approve of criticism about the Pole not having a plan B.

“Have no idea,” Tomasz Wiktorowski discards commentator who claimed Iga Swiatek does not have a plan B

Tomasz Wiktorowski and Iga Swiatek (via Imago)

Polish tennis ace Iga Swiatek won the bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Although it is a laudatory achievement, the 23-year-old faced some criticism for not bagging the gold, which she was expected to due to her prowess on clay. She lost to Qimwen Zheng in the semifinals and missed out on the chance to bag her first Olympic gold medal.

While a defeat to Zheng is not that surprising, Swiatek losing in straight sets was worrisome and led to some criticism. The five-time Grand Slam champion was targeted by her critics, who once again pointed to a lack of plan B.

YouTube video

Tennis commentator Lech Sidor opined that Swiatek did not have a plan B when she was pitted against Zheng. He claimed that despite failing to land her backhands inside the line, the Pole did not try anything else which shows that she does not have a backup plan.

FS Video

While a few others resonated with this thought, Swiatek’s coach Toamsz Wiktorowski paid no heed to this criticism. Instead, he discarded Sidor’s comments saying he does not address the comments of people who have not played at the highest level and derive their knowledge of the sport from media coverage.

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Tomasz Wiktorowski not pleased with criticism of Iga Swiatek

Tomasz Wiktorowski seemed irritated when he answered the question regarding Lech Sidor flagging Iga Swiatek‘s lack of plan B. The Polish coach was curious to know who made such a big claim and when he was informed about Sidor, he said that he would only address comments from people in authority.

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Iga Swiatek (Image via Imago)
I address the opinions of people I value, and respect and who I consider to be authority figures. I do not address the comments of people who sit in one place, have not been outstanding players or have not coached players playing at the highest level, do not know the realities of the current tennis tour, do not see how we work, have no idea what problems contemporary tennis players face, and derive their knowledge of contemporary tennis from media coverage and are only involved in 'telling' tennis by looking at a TV screen.
Tomasz Wiktorowski said (via Onet)

Notably, Swiatek was the favorite walking into Paris for the Summer Games. Ranked No. 1 in the world with four of the five Grand Slam titles on the same court where she was going to play, a gold medal looked inevitable for Swiatek. Even in the match against Qinwen Zheng, the Pole was an outright favorite considering her 6-0 head-to-head record before the match.

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