Iga Swiatek acknowledges that she was briefly troubled by the horrific Monica Seles stabbing event but says that she is not currently concerned about her safety as a result of the protesters disrupting the Rome Open.
The Australian Open, French Open, and US Open are just a few of the tennis tournaments where activists from different parties have successfully stormed the court and stopped play in recent years.
On Monday, a group of climate activists disrupted play on two courts at the ongoing Rome Open, but they were unable to do the same on a third. This was the most recent instance of that occurring at the tournament.
Swiatek was also in action on Monday, although protesters refrained from entering the court while she was playing against Angelique Kerber. Swiatek returned to the court the next day and defeated Keys 6-1, 6-3, to get to the Rome quarterfinal.
Swiatek was questioned about if she thought there was anything tournaments could do to help prevent protesters from interrupting Keys’ match the day before, as well as whether she had any concerns about her safety.
Swiatek expressed her thoughts about it and said: “Well, obviously, probably the best way is to increase security. I’m not sure how the security works because I’ve never had any situation where they had to kind of react when I was on the court. I didn’t see the protest yesterday. I heard that something was going on. I didn’t see it. I don’t know if they were close to players or not. 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.”
She added: “For sure, well, when I kind of saw what happened to Monica Seles, I had a couple of weeks where I thought about it sometimes. The only thing you need to do is trust that, if the situation happens, WTA will be ready with their security to react. That’s all.”
Swiatek in Rome, ranking, and results in 2024
Now the world no.1, Iga owns a composed 36-4 win-loss record in 2024. The Pole is currently having a run in Rome where she defeated the world no.77 Bernarda Pera 6-0 6-2, the world no.41 Yulia Putintseva 6-3 6-4, the world no.331 Angelique Kerber 7-5 6-3 and the world no.16 Madison Keys 6-1 6-3.
Iga Swiatek will play the world no.3 Coco Gauff in the semifinal on Thursday at 3:00 pm on CENTER COURT. Their actual record is 9-1 for Swiatek.
Iga conquered 4 titles in 2024 in Australia, Doha, Indian Wells and Madrid.
Swiatek won 21 titles in her career: 13 on hard courts and 8 on clay courts. (See the list of her titles)
Iga Swiatek |
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