“Our calendar is crazy, probably the toughest one in sports,” – Iga Swiatek complaining about tight scheduling in tennis is nothing new. We’ve heard a lot about this in the last few months. She even said, “It makes tennis less fun for us.” Now, if we take a look at her 2024 season, she has played almost 70 matches this season, and it has been a mix of good and bad. Recently, we saw a massive upset in the SF of the BJK Cup Finals. Jasmine Paolini’s Italy defeated Iga Swiatek’s Poland by 2-1! What did Swiatek say after losing the battle even after spending more than four hours on the court?

Italy started off this battle in an emphatic manner with Lucia Bronzetti delivering an impressive victory over Poland’s Magda Linette in the first match by 6-4,7-6(3). However, after that, the world number 2, Iga Swiatek pulled back her team on level terms with a hard-fought victory against, Jasmine Paolini. She defeated her by 3-6,6-4,6-4 in the singles match, but her efforts of putting Poland into the final went in vain with a defeat in the doubles event. Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani defeated Iga Swiatek and Katarzyna Kawa by 7-5,7-5 in that match.

Previously, while speaking about this iconic tournament, Swiatek mentioned, “That’s my last tournament of the season, and playing for Poland is always amazing. Even if I’m gonna die on court, so I will do it, but give a hundred percent.” What did she say making an exit from the BJK Cup? “Honestly, I don’t think I ever been that tired (smiling). Also, you know, because of the last match we played. So yeah, but still, like, no regrets. I fought for every point. Yeah, there was maybe one rally at the set point that I could have played better, but tactically I messed up. But overall, you know, we fought till the end, and we gave it all,” said the world number 2.

However, she isn’t the only one to face the bitter side of taking part in this iconic team event. Even a few Italians complained about getting tired during the later phases of this epic contest. For example, while summing up her thoughts on the win, Jasmine Paolini said, “It was tough today… the intensity was insane, I was a little bit tired but I said to myself, you still have to play the doubles, you have to give everything for Italy, for my team.”

Then Sara Errani also joined her saying, “It was not easy, it was a really long day, I didn’t start the doubles that well… but then I found the way, I think we played a really good match.” It’s nothing new for tennis players to showcase their concern about playing successive matches within a short time span. Not Swiatek, even other superstars of the racquet sport had also complained about the overcrowded calendar in this season. However, the Polish star has faced the most number of backlashes for raising her voice against the hectic schedules.

Former world number one takes jibe at Iga Swiatek for her constant criticisms of the tennis schedule

A few months ago, the former world number one, Yevgeny Kafelnikov brutally criticized Iga Swiatek after hearing her complaints about the tennis schedule being too demanding. What did the 50-year-old Russian legend say, though? While responding to a tweet featuring Iga Swiatek’s interview, Kafelnikov wrote, “Is someone pushing you to play??? All you fricking do is complain!!”

He further added, “I’ll tell you what you deserve! You deserve to get paid a lot less than you do now!! How about that??” So, this issue has been creeping on day by day in the tennis world. Amid all these concerns with fitness issues and the mental aspect of the game, these types of losses can really break the player’s heart. Representing the nation in any tournament always adds a different pressure to one’s game. How does Iga Swiatek handle all these tough losses?

Well, here’s the hint to that question! Iga Swiatek is a big fan of Rafael Nadal, and we all know that right? Perhaps, she might have been taking some lesson from his tennis idol. During a recent interaction with the media at the BJK Cup, she shared a touching story about Rafael Nadal. She reflected on how the Spaniard’s attitude during that conversation left a profound impact on her.

While recalling a moment from the 2021 French Open when Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal in the semis, she said, “I remember in 2021 he lost the semi-finals against Novak [Djokovic] and I saw him, because we were all staying at the same hotel because of the COVID. I saw him somewhere in the hotel and I told him that I even cried when he lost. He was so calm, and he said, ‘That’s just tennis and life goes on and there are gonna be different goals in the future.” She further added, “So I was like, ‘Wow, this person really knows how to deal with losing, even your favorite tournament.’ I realized that off the court you also need to learn on how to deal with stuff to be a better player on the court.” This year didn’t go well for this Polish tennis star. Do you think she can bounce back stronger next season?