WATCH: Iga Swiatek lashes out at journalist over inappropriate question at US Open

Saturday, 30 August 2025 at 18:33

byErik Virostko

Iga Swiatek had an unpleasant experience during her press conference at the 2025 US Open when she was asked an inappropriate question by a Polish journalist present at the event.

Being a tennis player involves not only hitting forehands and backhands on the tennis court, but also participating in various sponsor activities and fulfilling media duties. Additionally, tennis players must, and obviously want to, interact with their fans.

While interactions with fans are more or less uncontrolled and anything can happen during those, the communication with the press should be much more professional, and a place where players shouldn't fear ridiculous questions.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Some press members clearly don't know which questions are acceptable and which are not, with one of the Polish journalists recently asking Swiatek an inappropriate question in New York.

During press conferences, tennis players typically answer English questions first, and then switch to their native language for reporters from their home country. Most of the time, that's usually the more pleasant experience for the players due to the familiarity with the reporters and the language, of course.

In Swiatek's case, however, it was during an interaction with a Polish journalist that she was asked a personal question. The WTA World No. 2 was quizzed about her hairstyle and whether she considered weaving beads into her hair. Swiatek angrily responded, as she was stunned by the question.

"What is that question? Excuse me? If I considered weaving beads into my hair? No! What's going on? What is that question?"

Swiatek avoids question about racial inequality in tennis

Swiatek's strong response to the question from the Polish journalist might have been tied to her frustration with the last question from the English part of her press conference. One of the journalists asked Swiatek about double standards in tennis in relation to the players' races.

"Do you think the situation between the African-American tennis players and non, not only in your sport, but across the board, do you think there is a double standard that you guys are treated with, across the board? Like yesterday, when [Jelena Ostapenko] told her [Taylor Townsend] she was uneducated and arrogant. What does that tell you about the sport?"

Swiatek noticed that the journalist was very passionate about the topic, and since she didn't see the incident between Jelena Ostapenko and Taylor Townsend, she didn't want to comment on the situation without seeing it herself.

"Well, that's a pretty complicated question. I can't speak about every sport, because I don't have enough knowledge. We're in this environment, we're in the tennis world, thinking about tennis mostly. Obviously, the world has changed throughout the years."

"I know that there was some issue yesterday, but honestly, I was so focused, I had an early match, so I'm not caught up on that. I'm probably going to catch up on that today. But you can't really change from behavior of one person."

After Swiatek's response, the moderator of the press conference told the journalist in question that it was the last question, as previously announced, but they insisted on asking a follow-up. However, Swiatek didn't want to continue the discussion.