Iga Swiatek spoke about one of the darkest topics in the world of tennis as she also faces a lot of hate from fans after losses.
More and more players, on both ATP and WTA Tour, are recently starting to talk about their presence on social media and messages and comments that they receive from fans, spectators, or simply people who gamble on tennis matches.
In the past, Nick Kyrgios revealed death threats that he received, his colleague Taylor Fritz confirmed it, saying he gets around 50 to 100 after every match that he loses, and the most recent example saw Cristian Garin getting over 1000 such messages after losing at the 2023 Rio Open.
While the women's world no. 1 didn't talk about death threats in particular, speaking to Polish outlet Wprost, Swiatek revealed what tennis players have to go through and the hate that she gets after every match that she loses.
“There is a lot of hate after every loss. There used to be so little of it that I realized that there are more positive comments. But since my popularity and sports level has increased, the percentage of people who judge me negatively has also increased."
Obviously, Swiatek knows where the messages are coming from. Most often it's because of lost bets, but also unfair expectations that are often put on the players. The Pole reminded fans that athletes are doing the sport also for their own pleasure.
"This is probably related to their expectations, sometimes, unfortunately, to losing bets. What is weak for me is that athletes are in a way appropriated by the fans and people forget that we also play tennis for ourselves."
Currently, Swiatek is away from the tennis courts as she withdrew from the Miami Open due to an injury and now she prepares for the upcoming 2023 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart where she should make a comeback.
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