Iga Swiatek
criticized a post by We Are Tennis that misinterpreted her statement about
Rafael Nadal.
After
Swiatek's victory over Lesia Tsurenko in the Rome Open, winning 6-2, 6-0, the
Polish player was asked about the concept of being a "clay court specialist"
and whether she believes it still exists or should be considered a thing of the
past
“Well, I
think if we want to be the best in tennis, you have to play well on all these
surfaces. I'm lucky enough to have the grass court season only for three weeks,
but I'm still getting it. I know it's an important part of the tour and I
should be better at it," the world No. 1 said.
The 3-time
Grand Slam champion has expressed her admiration for Rafael Nadal on multiple
occasons. In this instance, she took the 14-time French Open champion as an
example:
"For
sure I feel like, yeah, you should be good on all surfaces. As you could see,
Rafa, he's called clay court specialist, but he won so many tournaments on hard
court and grass as well. The goal is to be good everywhere,” she said.
The news
page We Are Tennis was not accurate in sharing Swiatek's statement, making it
seem like the 2-time French Open champion aims to win as much as Nadal.
"Like
me, Rafael Nadal is considered a clay-court specialist, but he has won
everything on hard courts and on grass. The goal is to win everything like
Rafael Nadal."
The Polish
player saw the post on social media and responded to the "fake news"
given by the website.
"I
didn't say this. Why do you publish fake news?" Swiatek respond.