Iga Swiatek straight honestly admitted that she did feel annoyed and angry during the Middle East swing and the reason for that was the fact that she expected to do better.
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Between 2022 and 2024, the Pole completed a three-peat in Doha while she finished as runner-up in Dubai in 2023 and also reached the semifinal last year.
While the Middle East swing had been a happy hunting ground in the past, that wasn't the case this year. In Doha, Swiatek managed to come two wins away from winning her fourth consecutive title but those hopes were brutally squashed by Jelena Ostapenko, who handed her a 6-3 6-1 loss in the semifinal. Next week, the world No. 2 picked up another shock loss, getting bounced by Mirra Andreeva in the Dubai quarterfinal.
While getting demolished by Ostapenko, Swiatek smashed her racket - the five-time Grand Slam champion losing her cool in such a way was an odd thing to witness.
Swiatek: I was annoyed, but who isn't?
"Well, everybody is annoyed and angry when they lose. I was expecting a bit better results in terms of just which round I lost, you know, in Doha and Dubai," the 23-year-old admitted when asked about the frustration she showed in the Middle East.
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"But honestly, these tournaments have been tougher than for past years. You can even see going on my Wikipedia how did the matches look like past years and this year, for example. So for sure it was a different story.
I was annoyed, but who isn't, you know? I think in tennis it's important to just let it go and focus on the future, and I have been doing it pretty well, you know. I'm not expecting to win every tournament."
In her interview, Swiatek also slammed the balls used in Doha and Dubai as "pretty terrible" and compared them to "potatoes."
Meanwhile, the former world No. 1 is back to winning ways in Indian Wells, where she destroyed Karolina Muchova 6-1 6-1 to set up a quarterfinal against Zheng Qinwen and keep her chances of defending her title very high.
