‘It’s the Umpire’s Decision’- Iga Swiatek Refuses to Get Into Coco Gauff Controversy in Diplomatic Take On Wild French Open Moment

The world’s number-one WTA star Iga Swiatek hit the jackpot again in Paris. In her 12th match against the reigning US Open champion, Swiatek showed who is the boss on clay surface. While her match’s second set brought a lot of controversy following the umpire, Swiatek surprised the fraternity as she said she “didn’t really want to get into the discussion.”

In a recent press conference, Iga Swiatek revealed her bits about Coco Gauff’s conflict with the umpire in the Paris semifinals. In the beginning, Swiatek maintained her apolitical self and didn’t choose any sides. She started with how she focused on her game. “well I think here it would only be about you know the sound because if the line umpire called it after Coco’s return or not, I mean I don’t want to. I think he called it after her shot but I’m never sure honestly because I’m just focusing kind of on myself,” – said Swiatek.

She further added, “I don’t know what you guys think it’s the umpire’s you know decision so honestly I knew that if the umpire already made a decision she’s not going to change it so I didn’t really want to get into the discussion because for me it didn’t really make sense.”

Here, Swiatek is referring to Gauff’s debate with umpire Aurelie Tourte as the umpire overruled the Polish WTA star’s serve call out, impacting Gauff’s mind. As a result, the American tennis star was looking for a potential to pull off a 0-15 advantage on a return but confused with the decision, Gauff hit her return out of the court. After that, Gauff confronted the umpire and said how a VR system is much-needed for such situations.

While she chose to focus on herself, Swiatek didn’t completely ignore Coco Gauff’s statement. “but if Coco thought differently then I mean it’s normal I guess to say something but I didn’t know honestly how the conversation look like. So yeah I think it would be easier to have that replay”- said Swiatek. However, she finally supported the umpire’s decision. She chose to focus on the umpire’s confidence to take sides.

“ I don’t know how it would look like logistically you know when you can ask an umpire to call a video replay or on when you know when it’s up to her to do that because the umpire today was pretty sure with our call.” – she said.

Now, for the fans, Swiatek’s statement is quite justified because the umpire’s decision was in her fore, helping her to secure her victory in Paris’s finals by defeating Coco for the 11th time. Swiatek pulled off an amazing 6-2 and 6-4 to end the game and bag the tickets to the finals for the second time. Not only that but she also made an astonishing record in this clay-court major.

Iga Swiatek joins a legendary WTA star’s record with her recent victory in Paris

This Polish WTA star’s victory against Coco Gauff meant special for her as it was her 20th consecutive win at the tournament. Following this victory, Swiatek tied with American former world’s number one Steffi Graff making the fourth-longest winning streak by a WTA player on the clay surface. Before these two, only Chris Evert, Monica Seles, and Justine Henin pulled off such an incredible feat.

If Swiatek wins the title for the second time in Roland Garros, she will be the fourth WTA singles player to win the title after saving a match point. Before her Anastasia Mysakina, Justine Henin and Barbora Krejcikova could do that. In fact, Swiatek is the second youngest player after Steffi Graf to reach the Roland Garros four finals in the Open era. Swiatek is also the fourth WTA star to reach the Paris semifinals in the Open Era after Chris Evert, and Martina Navratilova, and the third player to consecutively reach the finals thrice after Sharapova and Henin.

Nevertheless, Iga Swiatek’s statement revealed that she is a player who follows the rules. Despite seeing her opponent conflict with the empire, she maintained her calm and played with all her energy to reach the finals.