Iga Swiatek says some members of the public ‘want attention and they’re willing to do anything‘ amid the increase in protests taking place during tennis tournaments in recent months.
Earlier this week at the Italian Open, two matches had to be suspended after climate protesters got onto the court. According to organisers, they threw confetti onto the court and glued themselves to the stands before eventually getting removed from the premises. Climate change activist group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) claimed responsibility for the protest. In a video posted on social media, they said they wanted to “tirelessly reiterate that the climate and social crisis is here and that intervention is needed as soon as possible.”
It is not the first time such protests have taken place with last year’s Wimbledon tournament also experiencing similar incidents, as well as the Citi Open in Washington and US Open in New York. Protesters chose to disrupt sports events to generate maximum publicity.
Questioned about any concerns she had for player safety in Rome, world No.1 Swiatek told reporters on Tuesday that the best way to address the issue is to increase security.
“Probably the best way is to increase security,” she commented after beating Madison Keys 6-1, 6-3.
“I’m not really sure how the security works because I’ve never had any situation where they had to kind of react when I was on court.
“I didn’t see the protest (earlier this week). I heard that there’s something going on. I don’t know if they were actually close to players or not.
“People want attention and they’re willing to do anything to get it. That’s how our world works right now.”
Elaborating further, Swiatek spoke about the stabbing of Monica Seles during the 1993 Hamburg Open which shocked the sports world. A crazed Steffi Graf fan stabbed the tennis star in her back during a changeover which caused both physical and mental repercussions. After the stabbing, it was more than two years before Seles played a Tour-level match again.
“When I kind of saw what happened to Monica Seles, I for sure had a couple of weeks where I thought about it sometimes.” She said.
“The only thing you need to do is to trust that, if the situation happens, WTA will be ready with their security to react. That’s all.”
Swiatek will play Coco Gauff in the semi-finals of the Italian Open later this week.
