Sport tips Schwiatek on the pressure after the first successes: Once I cried all day because I thought I had disappointed my sponsor
Iga Swietek recalled how the victory at Roland Garros 2020 affected her. - Have your expectations increased? You are 19 years old, and suddenly everyone starts comparing you with the greatest, wondering where your ceiling is. You can`t lose anymore. When you went to this Roland Garros, no one expected anything special from you. After all, getting there at the age of 19 is already a great achievement. But then everyone began to expect you to win the next major tournament. Did this influence you in any way?
- I thought that much was expected of me. In fact, everything was not so bad, because everyone understood that I was still a child. Now the expectations are much higher: they say that I should be at the peak, that I`m no longer a child and blah blah blah. . . And at the time, it seems to me, I was putting pressure on myself.
I remember when I signed my first contract with a sponsor, and he placed his logo on my uniform. For me it was a big event, which at first put a lot of pressure on me. I thought: It`s crazy, I now have a sponsor. They want me to succeed. What if I don`t repeat what I did in Paris? I remember I lost at the tournament according bestsportpredictions before the Australian Open. It took place in Melbourne, because because of Covid, all the five-hundredths were moved there. And I cried all day because I thought I had disappointed my sponsor. Why did they invest so much money in me if I lose?
It was hard, but you have to go through a lot because people, especially in Eastern Europe, are usually prepared for failure and how to overcome it, but not prepared for success. But in tennis, when you achieve good results, the hype immediately begins. So every week is, of course, a new challenge.
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