Iga Swiatek has spoken out against those belittling her win at the
Warsaw Open, as some say the
WTA 250 event isn't as important as other events in the run-up to the
US Open.
World No. 1 Swiatek defeated
Laura Siegemund in her hometown of Warsaw last week, becoming the first Polish player to win a WTA title in Poland since the start of the Open Era.
By playing at the tournament, Swiatek hopes to build the sport's popularity in the country and to encourage more Polish children to start tennis.
Very important to Swiatek
Following her victory, Swiatek shared her delight at winning in front of a home crowd on X, formerly known as Twitter,
"What a week it was. I read somewhere that the 250 WTA tournament is not as important as my next challenges in Canada and in the US. Well...to me it was VERY important and I'm happy I felt so much support and positive energy from you, fans. Thank you for that and see you soon," she wrote.
Following on from this win, Swiatek will be competing at the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open in preparation for defending her US Open title at Flushing Meadows.
Swiatek admits to being nervous in Warsaw
Despite the tournament containing much fewer big names than Swiatek is probably used to at this point, she admits that she did feel some nerves about playing at the event, which shows just how important it was to the 22-year-old,
"I want to thank my team and my family. It's not easy to play in Warsaw, but I'm so happy that we could manage and do everything we could today, after a pretty tiring day yesterday.
"I wanted to put it all in and go for it. I'm pretty happy that I did," she said.
