Iga Swiatek appeared to be left stunned and in disbelief after being asked in Rome how does she explain “not receiving attention in the presence of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.”
Swiatek, the WTA world No. 1 and a four-time Grand Slam champion, reached the Rome Open round-of-16 on Saturday after beating Yulia Putintseva 6-3 6-4. By clinching a win over Putintseva, Swiatek improved to 10-1 this clay season and she is four wins away from winning her third Rome title and also winning back-to-back titles this clay season – the Pole won Madrid a week earlier.
As mentioned above, 22-year-old Swiatek has already enjoyed massive success in Rome as she is in a position to have three titles at Foro Italico before turning 23. Naturally, Swiatek came to Rome as one of the top favorites and people talk about her as the one to beat.
But after her latest Rome win, Swiatek was pretty much told that people weren’t paying attention on her as she was asked “why is the attention of the people not on you?”
“Why, what?” Swiatek responded.
Swiatek then added more.
“Well, I don’t know if that was a punch or not,” Swiatek said.
“I think there is some attention on me, but I totally understand why Rafa and Novak, they have such a huge fan base. It’s not like I’m jealous or…
