She won her fourth Grand Slam title, dominated the prestigious Tournament of Champions for the first time in her career, and was declared the best tennis player of the season. Nevertheless, Iga Šwiateková did not avoid criticism in her homeland for not finding the strength and time to represent Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup.
When her respected predecessor in the position of national number one, Agnieszka Radwaňská, joined the critical voices, a passionate discussion was taken care of in Poland.
According to the former world number two and 2012 Wimbledon finalist, Šwiateková could have arrived at the final tournament of the team competition in Seville just to support the team and possibly play a limited number of matches or less demanding ones.
However, Radwaňská did not question that she respects the decision of the current world number one, even though Šwiateková refused to participate in the final for the second time in a row.
Both last year and this year, the Polish women remained significantly far from progressing from the basic group to the semi-finals.
The local media confronted the national superstar with criticism after the season, but Šwiateková responded without much emotional overtones.
“Honestly, I didn’t feel insulted because I didn’t care. We both have completely different careers that have to be approached differently. Even though we have the same coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski,” said the four-time Grand Slam champion.
“Agnieszka knows that sometimes you have to make a selfish decision that will help you avoid future problems,” she added, singling out Radwaňska for what she has done for Polish tennis in the past decade.
“She just expressed her opinion in the context that she herself sacrificed many times for the national team. Thanks to her, Poland had great results and she was available practically all the time. But I have a lot of responsibilities and duties off the court, considering that I am a world number one,” said the native of Warsaw.
She does not want to play the final of the former Fed Cup, especially because of the deadline at the very end of the season, immediately after the Tournament of Champions.
Practically all top female players complained about the unfortunate collision in the calendar this year. Even Markéta Vondroušová with Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková had to make an exhausting lightning move from Cancún, Mexico, to Europe because of the national team. The American stars Coco Gauffová and Jessica Pegulaová, like Šwiateková, did not arrive in Seville at all.
“I had to make that decision, especially since the two events followed each other on two different continents just two days after each other. I hope that the WTA will return to the system that worked during Agnieszka’s time,” Šwiateková hinted that by then she would not be in the final of the BJK Cup no one will see.
She also reminded that in the statistics of the last two years she has played the most matches of all players. In 2022, she played 80 of them, losing only ten of them. This year, she entered 79 duels and lost only eleven of them.
“That’s why these decisions were made. Given that I’m healthy now and doing well, these were the right and reasonable decisions, even if emotionally difficult,” Šwiateková explained.
On the contrary, she confirmed that she will be available to the national team in the qualifying duel of Poland in Switzerland in April, because the date is much easier to include in the schedule.
In one breath, however, she criticized the WTA for the trampled calendar for the next season.
The number of tournaments in the WTA 1000 category is to increase to ten, and the events in Madrid and Beijing will now last fortnight. Between Wimbledon and the US Open, there will also be the Olympic Games in Paris.
“The players will have even more responsibilities, we will have to make even more efforts. It does not help what the WTA is supposedly trying to support, which is the mental and physical health of the players and their life balance,” Polka told Eurosport.
2023-12-14 10:30:53
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