We experienced a rather surprising scene during Iga Swiatek’s press conference after her victory over Daria Kasatkina in her third and final group match in Riyadh.
The world No. 2 was not aware that she did not have her destiny in her hands and she understood this when she discovered the first question asked to her.
A victory for Barbora Krejcikova over Coco Gauff would doom her no matter what. This is also the scenario that took place later in the day, effectively eliminating the Pole.
But the match between Gauff and Krejcikova had not yet been played at the time of Swiatek’s press conference, who, although she tried to put things into perspective afterwards, was almost stunned when she heard the news.
Iga Swiatek (extremely surprised): “You mean the result (against Kasatkina) didn’t matter?
Honestly, I don’t think it changes anything, because we go on court to win every match anyway. So I didn’t think about that. But I didn’t know that was the case.
I think I’m professional enough to always give 100% whatever the issue, so you know no, it didn’t matter.
If I make it to the semi-finals, it’s going to be great and I’m going to have fun doing it. If I’m not going to play in the semi-finals, then I’ll have a few days off. I can’t go back in time and play better. You know, this match I played against Coco (she lost 6-3, 6-4 against Gauff in her 2nd group match).
I think I did everything I could to be there. The first match with Barbora (she beat Krejcikova 4-6, 7-5, 6-2) was quite close and I managed to raise my level. So I’m proud of this match anyway, and of course it’s going to be quite heartbreaking if Barbora is the second qualified player (with Gauff), but that’s life and that’s the tournament.
It’s a pretty special system, you know, so one year you can benefit from the positive aspects of that and one year obviously you can be eliminated because of that same system. But these are the rules and we have to adapt. »
