Iga Swiatek goes fan girl over recent meet-up with Serena Williams
By Lee Vowell
Iga Swiatek likes to keep her cool. Rarely does she exhibit the kind of behavior that Andrey Rublev might. To be fair, hardly anyone behaves like Rublev. He is too bombastic and self-destructive and Swiatek would never do that. Her game does not always translate well to other surfaces than clay, but she has won a US Open before.
So far at this year's event, she has been dominant. She acts as if she wants to disprove any issues she might have had after not winning the Olympics on her beloved clay at the same surface where the French Open is played. The Pole has won at Roland Garros four times. She was less efficient at the Olympics and only won bronze.
Serena Williams, though, is a 23-time major winner and six of those came at the US Open. She knew how to perform her best in New York and she also knew that her victories would help turn her into an American hero. She is arguably the best player in the history of women's tennis, and if Swiatek is a fan girl about the American, that makes sense.
Iga Swaitek admits to being star-struck by Serena Williams
Swiatek admitted as much after her third-round win against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The WTA No. 1 met with Williams before her match - sort of - but was somewhat afraid to approach the all-time great. This is nice to see as a fan because we likely all see the best of tennis as unapproachable. As it turns out, even the best players in tennis see some of their predecessors the same way.
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Swiatek told the media about speaking with Williams, "It is nice that she came on-site and she was chatting with the players because for me, even though we met before and for like a couple of years...she is still like star-striking me. It was nice that she approached me because I wouldn’t for sure find the courage to do that if it was the other way. Yeah, she is really nice and really positive."
Honestly, that makes Swiatek even more likable, right? She might be great at her sport, but she is also a bit like us when looking up to her heroes. Next for Swiatek she will try to get through Liudmila Samsonova on her way to the quarterfinals of the US Open.
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