Iga Swiatek discusses nearly hitting a ball boy and three weeks she spent crying daily last year

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Iga Swiatek offered a revealing look at her emotional state in recent months — which included a doping suspension, coming to grips with knowing she might not return to No. 1 this season and “three weeks crying daily” — in a lengthy social media post Monday that also discussed online criticism she received for nearly hitting a ball boy by hitting a ball in anger between points.

“I see there’s been a lot of recent talk about changes in my on-court behavior and emotions,” Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam champion, posted on Instagram a day before the start of the Miami Open, where she is seeded second. “Although I’m not comfortable explaining myself, it’s time I share my perspective to stop the speculation and baseless theories.”

Swiatek addressed what happened last week at the tournament in Indian Wells, California, where she smacked a ball and it landed on the court close to the ball boy before bounding toward the stands. The episode happened during her semifinal loss to eventual champion Mirra Andreeva.

“It’s true — I expressed frustration in a way I’m not proud of. My intention was never to aim the ball at anyone but merely to release my frustration by bouncing it on the ground. I immediately apologized to the ball boy, we made eye contact, and nodded to each other when I expressed regret that it happened near him,” Swiatek wrote. “I’ve seen many players bounce balls in frustration, and frankly, I didn’t expect such harsh judgments. Usually, I control such impulses, so half-jokingly I can say I lack experience in this and misjudged my aim in the heat of the moment.”

Swiatek lamented the “constant judgment” that accompanies her career and wrote: “I clearly see how much (people) love judging, creating theories, and imposing opinions on others.”

She also spoke about how the standards have shifted as her outward displays of her feelings have.

“When I’m highly focused and don’t show many emotions on court, I’m called a robot, my attitude labeled as inhuman. Now that I’m more expressive, showing feelings or struggling internally, I’m suddenly labeled immature or hysterical,” Swiatek said. "That’s not a healthy standard — especially considering that just six months ago, I felt my career was hanging by a thread, spent three weeks crying daily, and didn’t want to step on the court.”

She spent most of the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons atop the WTA rankings; Aryna Sabalenka replaced her at No. 1 in October. Swiatek, a 23-year-old from Poland, has won four of the past five titles at the French Open — including each of the past three — along with the 2022 U.S. Open.

But she dealt with a doping case last year after failing an out-of-competition drug test in August for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication known as TMZ. The International Tennis Integrity Agency accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and caused by the contamination of the non-prescription medication melatonin that she was taking for issues with jet lag and sleeping.

The resolution of her case was made public in late November; she already had been sidelined provisionally, missing three tournaments in October, and finished her one-month ban during the offseason.

“The second half of last year was extremely challenging for me, especially due to the positive doping test and how circumstances completely beyond my control took away my chance to fight for the highest sport goals at the end of the season,” Swiatek wrote Monday, adding that “forced me to rearrange certain things within myself."

She concluded by observing, “I know I'll never please everyone. I walk my own path.” And closed with the phrase: “See you in Miami.”

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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis