Iga Swiatek admitted she was too ashamed to request additional towels at Wimbledon following her second-round victory, and she pushed back against Martina Navratilova’s glowing assessment of her performance.
Swiatek Advances with Comfortable Win
The six-time Grand Slam champion defeated Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 6-3 to book her place in the third round. The match was played in windy conditions, which Swiatek cited as a factor in her self-evaluation.
Speaking on BBC commentary, Navratilova praised the world No. 1: “If I were her coach I would like to get more spin into her shots but she was great today, her returns were amazing so A+ from me. Today, she really looked like a defending Wimbledon champion.”
Swiatek Disagrees with Navratilova’s Grade
In her on-court interview after the win, Swiatek acknowledged the compliment but offered a different perspective. “When legends like that say nice things about you it means a lot and it's why you try to be the best tennis player possible for people to appreciate it, so I'm really happy she's saying that,” she said. “I don't know if it was an A+, sometimes it was a tricky game, especially with the wind, sometimes the balls were really low and far away from you, especially the last game I felt like I played so many dirty shots, not really controlling that much, but if you keep your margins it goes in. So not really A+, but a B, I would say.”
Swiatek’s Towel Request Embarrassment
Swiatek, who has earned the nickname “towel thief” for taking towels from Grand Slams as souvenirs, admitted she was embarrassed to ask for more this year. When asked if she has all the towels she needs, she replied: “Well there are two more there I guess in the green boxes, but I was ashamed to ask, so I'm going to stick with the four that I've got already.”
