Iga Swiatek says it is absolutely not true that her intention was to throw Katie Boulter off her game when she called a medical timeout early in the third set of their United Cup thriller.
On Thursday, the Polish tennis star and the top-ranked British tennis player were in the midst of a grueling battle and there wasn’t really much separating the two.
After making the first move in the third set and breaking Swiatek for a 2-1 lead, Boulter had to wait for several minutes before action resumed because the world No. 2 left the court for a medical timeout.
Iga Swiatek© X
When the five-time Grand Slam champion returned, she instantly got the break back in the fourth game and earned a break in the 10th game when the world No. 24 was serving to stay in the match.
During the third set – but also after the match finished – the former world No. 1 faced criticism and scrutiny from fans on social media as some directly accused the 23-year-old of trying to throw Boulter off her game.
Swiatek responds to the backlash: I didn’t feel well, I took a medical timeout because I had to
“No, I wasn’t expecting that. I didn’t take medical timeout to throw Katie off her game. I did it because I had to and I didn’t feel well. But I took some, you know, painkillers, and they started working pretty quickly. I was able to move a bit better,” the Pole explained.
“But yeah, I felt that she got distracted a bit. She missed some shots right after the break, but it wasn’t my intention, obviously, like, I don’t do these kind of things to do it tactically. It was just that I needed it. So yeah.”
Meanwhile, Swiatek and Co. are through to the United Cup semifinal as the Polish star is set to face Elena Rybakina on Saturday and then also possibly play in mixed doubles.
Tennis World USA