For the second year in a row, Iga Swiatek has opted out of playing for Poland at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, and she was criticized for it.
Swiatek has always been fiercely patriotic, or so she claimed. She claimed that playing for Poland was the best thing to do, and yet it's been a while since she did that. The reasons for it are, according to the player, entirely selfish because she's prioritizing her tennis career, and that's fine.
After all, you can't really blame her for it. Scheduling has played a major part in that as well as several players opted out of playing at the event. An event that starts literally a day after the WTA Finals conclude is not going to be an event that will have many of those players playing.
It's just not realistic, especially when you add the traveling needed for it. Even so, she was called out by Polish legend Agnieszka Radwanska for not playing, something she addressed in a recent interview with Sportowe Fakty.
I treated this statement calmly. Some words are taken out of context, I have experienced this myself several times. Agnieszka knows how to function on a tour, what the burdens are, she knows this perspective. She knows that sometimes you have to make a more selfish decision that will later help you avoid problems that will affect everyone.
Agnieszka expressed her opinion in the context that she herself had sacrificed many times for the national team. A similar attitude must certainly be appreciated. However, I have the impression that in the past all this was not analyzed so carefully and some things were easier to plan. There was no discussion that, for example, the next tournament would be played on another continent.
She held talks with the tennis bodies in hopes of making it more feasible for top players, but as of now, nothing changed. We'll see if something changes in the future.
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