Online abuse of athletes has become a depressingly familiar blight on the sporting landscape, but it is rare one gets to observe its effects in real time. The impact was all too evident, however, as Iga Swiatek recovered from a faltering start against Qinwen Zheng to advance to the last eight in Cincinnati for the first time.
The Polish world No 1 was in upbeat mood in the immediate aftermath of her 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory. Assigned to the unfamiliar environs of the grandstand court, which has less than half the capacity of the Lindner Family Tennis Centre’s 11,400-seat centre court, Swiatek struggled at first to adjust to the attendant noise and bustle, her difficulties compounded by a swirling wind and a quick start by the 24th-ranked Zheng, a gifted 20-year-old from China, who snatched a double break to move 3-0 up in 19 minutes.
But after committing 23 unforced errors to drop the opener, Swiatek returned from a bathroom break with a new outfit and a new strategy, tightening up her game to rattle through the next two sets. Her relief was reflected in a light-hearted on-court interview in which she credited her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, for the sartorial masterstroke that accompanied the turnaround.
“My coach my coach told me a couple of months ago that after losing a set it might be a good idea to change your outfit, so you can kind of reset and go to the second set in a different vibe,” said Swiatek.
“I thought this was bullshit,” she added, silently mouthing the expletive to the camera with a conspiratorial smile, “but I tried it and it worked – so thank you, coach.”
An hour or so later, however, Swiatek’s entered the interview room in markedly different mood. With an air of despondency, the 22-year-old prefaced her press conference with a breathy appeal for an end to online hate messages. Whatever she had seen in the interim had clearly hit home hard.
“For sure today’s match wasn’t perfect, we all saw that, but the amount of hate and criticism that me and my team get after even losing a set is just ridiculous,” said Swiatek.
“I want to encourage people to be more thoughtful when they comment on the internet. We all sacrifice a lot and we are all working really hard. We are always giving 100% of what we can do, every day.
“It’s kind of sad for me to see that people I work with, and myself, we are really judged. I would like to encourage people to be more thoughtful and to also focus on the positive side of what we are doing because today, even though I didn’t start the match well, I would love for people to see how I problem-solved and how I really got out of troubles.
“Even though, for sure, I didn’t feel my best game or that it was going to be a good performance in the first set, I was able actually to do that – and it’s because I’m doing a lot of work, physically and mentally.
“Also, off court, I’m trying to be the best kind of person and player as possible. I just wanted to encourage people on the internet to be more positive and also see the positive side of what we’re doing.”
Swiatek, who has shown a refreshing willingness to use the platform provided by her status as the world’s best player to speak out on social issues, undoubtedly deserves credit for addressing the scourge of online abuse. How much difference it will make is, as she acknowledged, another matter.
In a recent study by the risk intelligence company Crisp, three of the five athletes who received the most online abuse were tennis players: Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Female players typically bear the brunt of the invective, which often includes death threats and discriminatory language.
Ons Jabeur, seeded fifth in Cincinnati, applauded Swiatek’s decision to speak out. The Tunisian, also through to the quarter-finals after Donna Vekic retired due to a viral illness while trailing 2-5, laid the blame firmly at the door of gamblers.
“I’m glad that Iga is talking about it,” said Jabeur, who will face Aryna Sabalenka in Friday’s night session. “You win, you lose, you get hate messages no matter what you do.
“We need more humanity, more nicer people in this Earth, but I don’t think you can change the mentality of some betters. They have nothing to do in their life, and they are just spending money on you. Probably, what, they lost a couple of bucks on Iga losing a set? It is frustrating, but it is the reality.”
That is something Swiatek knows all too well. Following her defeat to Barbora Krejcikova in the Dubai final earlier this year, the Pole talked of having a target on her back as she attempted to live up to the expectations created by last season’s 37-match winning streak.
“I lost in the final and people were surprised – not happy with the performance – and just critical,” said Swiatek. “It made me think that last year, before this huge streak and before winning all these tournaments, I would have been so happy with the result. But because of these comments right now, I felt like ‘Ooh, that’s not enough.’ I’m trying not to read those kinds of things, because I’m happy with the work I’ve put in and how I played.”
It was a theme Swiatek returned to in Cincinnati, where she will face Marketa Vondrousova, the freshly minted Wimbledon champion, for a place in the last four.
“I’m always doing my best and it’s not possible to perform your best game all the time,” said Swiatek. “After Dubai and Doha, when I won a tournament and then was in a final, I was pretty proud of my results. But people really kind of just saw the last match, and I lost in the final and [they thought] I shouldn’t, and so I wish they could see the positive side.”
Watching the transformation in Swiatek’s mood over the course of an hour in which she was laughing and joking one moment, and then downbeat and sombre the next, it was hard not to wish likewise.