Once again, we are reminded that the internet can be a vast wasteland for online trolls.
Poland’s Iga Swiatek, the world’s top-ranked women’s tennis player, found herself a social media target Thursday as she beat Zheng Qinwen, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Swiatek committed 10 unforced errors in the final two sets after having 20 in the first set, and that had the haters hating.
After her win, Swiatek, 22, took the opportunity to take issue with followers making negative social media comments about her match.
“Well, today’s match wasn’t perfect,” she said during an opening statement.
“We all saw that, but the amount of hate and criticism that me and my team get after even losing a set is just ridiculous. I want to kind of encourage people to be more thoughtful when they comment on the internet.”
“It’s kind of sad for me to see that people I work with and myself, we are really judged. I would like to encourage people to be more thoughtful and to also focus on the positive side of what we are doing, because today, even though I didn’t start the match well, I would love for people to see how I problem-solved and how I really got out of trouble.”
Ons Jabeur, the No. 5 ranked player in the WTA, was quick to defend Swiatek, the reigning U.S. Open champion, after her press conference.
“Honestly, you win, you lose, you get hate messages no matter what you do,” Jabeur said, who said sports betting was partly to blame for the vitriol online.
“We need more humanity, more nice people on this earth, but I don’t think you can change the mentality of some bettors.
“They have nothing to do in their life and they’re spending money on you and probably, what, they lost a couple of bucks on Iga losing a set,” Jabeur said.
As for Swiatek, she faced 10th-seeded Markéta Vondroušová in the quarterfinals Friday and advanced with 7-6 (3), 6-1 win.
With the victory, Swiatek will face American Coco Gauff, the No. 7 seed, in the semifinals on Saturday.
