An emotional Iga Swiatek admits she was at a loss over her performance during her Paris Olympics semi-final defeat to Zheng Qinwen as she revealed there was “a hole” in one of her biggest weapons.
World No 1 Swiatek was the overwhelming favourite to win gold at Paris 2024 as was unbeaten at Roland Garros since 2021 with her career record 38-2 on the clay in the French capital.
The Pole had also won her previous 20 clay-court matches as she claimed titles at the Madrid Open, Italian Open and French Open, but she produced an erratic display, especially on the backhand, against the sixth-seeded Zheng.
The Chinese player took full advantage and won the opening set comfortably before Swiatek threatened to stage a comeback in the second set. The five-time Grand Slam winner opened a 4-0 lead, but Zheng hit back to win 6-2, 7-5 to secure her place in the gold medal match
Swiatek broke down during an interview with Eurosport Poland after the match, saying: “Without any doubts [she found solutions to win]. In fact she played … I just had a hole in my backhand.
“It happens rarely because it is usually my most solid strike. I was not technically well positioned because of the stress and the fact that I played my games day by day.
“We didn’t have time to adjust that and work on that. I know that’s not the justification, but I tried to correct that during the match. Today it didn’t work at all. So, she used that to win the game.”
Asked about her inability to win the maintain her high level after taking a big lead in the second set, she replied: “It’s the result of the match. So I just messed up.”
And all is not lost for Swiatek as she can still win a medal for Poland at the Paris Games as she will take on either Donna Vekic from Croatia or Slovakia’s Anna Schmiedlová in the bronze medal playoff match.
Swiatek also admitted after third-round exit from Wimbledon that she got her preparation wrong as she was still exhausted after her clay-court exploits.
“For sure I didn’t feel like… I don’t know. My tank of really pushing myself to the limits became suddenly, like, empty. I was kind of surprised,” she said. “But I know what I did wrong after Roland Garros. I didn’t really rest properly. I’m not going to make this mistake again.
“After such a tough clay-court season, I really must have my recovery. Maybe that’s also the reason. But I thought that I’m going to be able to kind of, I don’t know, play at the same level. I feel like on grass I need little bit more of that energy to keep being patient and accept some mistakes.”
After the medal matches, Swiatek and the rest of the WTA Tour’s top stars are set to compete at the Canadian Open where she will be top seed.
Last year she reached the semi-final before losing to eventual champion Jessica Pegula.
Heartbreak for Iga Swiatek as her 25 game winning streak at Roland Garros comes to an end and her quest for Olympic gold is over 💔#Olympics #PARIS2024 pic.twitter.com/jvhlAsFV1p
— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 1, 2024
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