Iga Swiatek explained the reasons why she repeatedly dismissed talk about a WTA Big Three in a recent interview.
The Polish player is back taking part in the Poland Open, and she made a winning start in the first round. The goal for her is to win the event, one she didn't do last year as she was beaten by Caroline Garcia before the final.
She arrived in Warsaw as the top player in the world, holding the ranking ahead of Aryna Sabalenka, who had a decent chance to dethrone her recently but came up short. It's been a big battle between them this year as they have been the best players on Tour alongside Elena Rybakina.
There were a lot of questions about the two challengers towards Swiatek in the first part of the year, questiones she usually deflected. In a recent interview with Polish media, she admitted that she didn't get why she was asked them.
Certainly at first this situation and narrative seemed specific to me, because often when I had interviews or press conferences, I was asked about Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka. Even when they were in the second half of the draw and were far from me. The probability of meeting was small.
There was a pretty clear narrative formed around the three players and that was of WTA Big Three. It's undeniable that they've been a clear level above the rest of the field and most of these questions were asked to further that narrative.
I'll admit that it was specific to me, because I didn't quite understand the purpose of these questions. It is known that the media also function in such a way as to attract viewers and creating such a female big three will certainly help in this and is certainly interesting for fans, but I think that we, and certainly me, are developing, going our own way, regardless of what happens to other players.
When it comes to the Big Three tag specifically, Swiatek thinks it's too early. Those players have been winning for many years, collecting 65 Grand Slam titles together, and in her mind comparing what they did to what this newly risen WTA trio did doesn't make much sense.
As for the Big Three, the naming is so hasty, because in men's tennis it's Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal, however, they achieved "a little" more than we did.
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