A well-known tennis journalist as launched a passionate defence of Iga Swiatek as well as Novak Djokovic following their Madrid Open exits as he revealed that “both are going through a complicated period”.
Swiatek endured a difficult title defence at the WTA 1000 tournament as she needed three sets to beat teenager Alex Eala in the second round, also went the distance against Daria Schnaider in the last 16 and was bagelled by Madison Keys in the opening set of their quarter-final before bouncing back to win three sets.
She was then humbled by world No 4 Coco Gauff in the semi-final as she suffered an extraordinary collapse as the American won 6-1, 6-1 in what was one of the five-time Grand Slam winner’s worst defeats.
“I couldn’t really get my level up,” Swiatek admitted after the match. “Coco played good, but, yeah, I think it’s, you know, on me that I didn’t really move well, I wasn’t ready to play back the shots with heaviness, and, yeah, with that kind of game like, yeah, it was pretty bad. ”
Djokovic, meanwhile, crashed out in the second round as he was beaten in straight sets by the unseeded Matteo Arnaldi with the defeat coming just a fortnight after he also lost early at the Monte Carlo Masters.
Journalist Benoit Maylin was the first to confirm that both tennis stars are dealing with incredibly difficult life issues away from the court as he wrote on social media platform X: “Before burying Djokovic and Swiatek after Novak’s strange behavior and Iga’s apparent nervousness, it should be noted that both are going through a complicated period.
“Several of Djoko’s close friends have health problems, and Iga lost his grandfather just before the tournament.”
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Fellow journalist Michał Chojecki has revealed that Swiatek’s communications manager Daria Sulgostowska has confirmed that the world No 2 flew to Poland after her elimination from the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart on April 19 to attend the funeral.
She then travelled back to Madrid to prepare for the WTA 1000 event.
“I asked Iga Swietek’s team if the information given by this journalist about the death of Iga’s grandfather is true. Daria Sulgostowska confirms. Iga was at the funeral before the tournament,” Chojecki wrote.
Swiatek’s next tournament is her title defence at the Italian Open while Djokovic has decided to withdraw from the ATP Masters 1000 event with his next tournament the French Open.
There have been reports that Swiatek will take an extended break after Roland Garros and skip the grass-court season, including Wimbledon, following a difficult couple of months, but the Pole is yet to confirm her plans after the clay-court campaign.
The post Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic going through ‘complicated period’ with heartbreaking news about Pole ‘true’ appeared first on Tennis365.
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