Swiatek recalls Polish media frenzy during his absence after the US Open: "They diagnosed me with mental disorders"
Iga Swiatek will start 2025 with the aim of not experiencing a season as tormented as in 2024, when she had to deal with a positive test for contamination that forced her not to play the Asian tour between September and October.
Her absence from the circuit came as a huge surprise in Poland, where she is a national star. To the point of media exaggeration, as she described in Caroline Garcia's Tennis Insider Club podcast:
"Abroad, the media said nothing. But in Poland, it was crazy. They diagnosed me with mental disorders, as if I'd suddenly suffered from depression.
I was exhausted. I was in the process of firing several members of my team.
Suddenly, they're writing these articles, with headlines to get clicks, that there's something wrong, because I haven't played two tournaments.
There was a lot of hate. I think they're writing things they wouldn't say in front of us."
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