Protesters invaded tennis courts at the 2024 Italian Open in Rome and Iga Swiatek would like to see more security.
Protesting is a fundamental right, but many people will argue that there is a proper way to do it. In essence, protests are supposed to be annoying and disruptive because the goal is to shine a light on a cause that is largely ignored by the wider populace.
Invading a tennis court is very annoying and disruptive to both players and fans, but at the same time, it could be perceived as dangerous. Especially in tennis, the situation is even more complicated for players because there are safety concerns.
Somebody invading could be a protester, or there could be another incident, like when Monica Seles was stabbed on the tennis court, which no one wants to see.
It's impossible to tell in real-time, so obviously, players can feel far from secure when someone jumps onto the court out of nowhere. Swiatek would like to see more security to counter the pitch invasions as of late.
"Well, obviously probably the best way is to increase security. I'm not really sure how the security works because I've never had any situation where they had to kind of react when I was on court. I didn't see the protest yesterday. I heard that there's something going on. I didn't see it. I don't know if they were actually close to players or not."
The Polish player is aware that protesters want to grab attention, but at the same time, she's aware of tennis history, and obviously, she would want to avoid similar situation.
"Well, there aren't many thoughts. People want attention and they're willing to do anything to get it. That's how our world works right now. For sure, well, when I kind of saw what happened to Monica Seles, I for sure had a couple of weeks where I thought about it sometimes."