Iga Swiatek praised the French Open crowd following her round-of-16 win over Anastasia Potapova as the Pole said she was seeing a positive difference in their behavior just days after calling them out.
Last Wednesday, Swiatek wasn’t happy with how the crowd behaved during her French Open second-round meeting versus former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka. In what was a highly-thrilling match in which Swiatek saved a match point and recovered from a 2-5 third-set deficit, the French Open crowd got extremely excited and entertained – which led to stuff that the Polish world No. 1 didn’t appreciate much.
“I have huge respect for you guys and I know we are playing for you, but sometimes under a lot of pressure when you scream something during the rally, it’s really hard to be focused,” Swiatek told the crowd after the Osaka match.
“I usually don’t bring this up because I want to be a player that’s in the zone and focused. But this is serious for us. We’re fighting our whole lives to be better and better. Sometimes it’s hard to accept that. The stakes are big. There’s a lot of money to win. Losing a few points may change a lot
“Please, guys, if you can support us between the rallies but not during, that would be great. I hope you’re still gonna like me…
