Sawt Falasteen - Olympic defeat felt like 'someone broke my heart', says Swiatek

Four-time French Open champion Swiatek revealed she cried "for six hours" after losing to China's Zheng Qinwen in Thursday's semi-finals - her first defeat in Paris since 2021.

On Friday, the 23-year-old at least had the consolation of winning Poland's first ever Olympics tennis medal when she defeated Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-2, 6-1 to claim bronze.

"Yesterday was one of the toughest losses I probably ever had in my career," said Swiatek, who also endured a miserable Olympics debut in Tokyo three years ago when she exited in the second round.

"I actually realised yesterday that I wasn't really playing for myself anymore. I am playing for everybody else, for the country, for my team.

"I tried to work through it, but I wasn't quite sure how deep it was really and how much baggage there was."

She added: "I cried for about six hours yesterday. It was really dumb but it was like someone broke my heart, you know."

Swiatek said she will try and learn from seeing how men's title favourite Carlos Alcaraz goes about his business at the Olympics and use that as a template when she goes for gold again at Los Angeles in 2028.

"I can see that he's enjoying every minute of it. I'm going to actually have to try that as well."

Schmiedlova had defeated top-10 players Jasmine Paolini and Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova on her way to the bronze medal match, belying her ranking of 67.

"To play Iga for the third place, that's the most difficult option. I never played her here before so it's a great experience," said the 29-year-old.

"I'm a little bit sad for sure, but fourth place is great."

K.AbuTaha--SF-PST