Iga Swiatek apologises to fans as she refuses to gift rackets

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One plucky fan asked for a piece of memorabilia which could be worth a fortune in years to come if Iga Swiatek’s goes on to dominate the women’s game. The talented 21-year-old continued her winning form at the San Diego Open but proved that players don’t have an endless supply of rackets after not gifting hers to a fan ahead of the final, which she ended up winning.

Swiatek has won the French and US Open titles this season and powered through to a ninth WTA final of the campain and to her 63rd win of the year in the San Diego Open semi-final beating Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. A video posted by the Tennis Channel showed Swiatek preparing to leave the court while being applauded by fans.

A fan asked for her racket and in reply the Polish player replied: ‘Sorry I need them.’ Instead Swiatek is seen giving a fan her sweatband. The post continued: “@iga_swiatek as sweet as ever as she kindly denies a request for a racquet of hers. #SanDiegoOpen”

Swiatek didn’t have everything her own way in San Diego losing the first set after ‘losing focus’ against world number six. She said: “I was leading in the first set so I knew I had the game to win this match but I lost my focus in the middle of the set.

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“I didn’t want to make that mistake again so I came back and I wanted to be really composed and not lose those important moments.” After losing the first set Swiatek had time to reflect and re-coup as the match was paused for over an hour due to heavy rain.

The Polish player said she kept her focus by doing a crossword in the break between play. She added: “I haven’t had a lot of breaks like that but usually before a match I’m doing crosswords so I did the same right now. It’s a nice way to keep your focus beyond social media and just relaxing.”

The crossword seemed to do the trick as the world number one came out and raced into a commanding 3-0 lead in the second set eventually dropping two games (6-2) and drawing level in the match. From that point the Polish player was in control going into a 4-2 lead in the third and final set which she also won 6-2.

The victory meant that Swiatek was guaranteed to finish the season with more than 10,000 ranking points. That achievement has only been previously done by Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.

Swiatek then overcame Donna Vekic in the San Diego final, winning 6-3 3-6 6-0.

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