Just Too Arrogant: Fans Tagged Swiatek Mannerless Due to…
Iga Swiatek arrived in Paris as the top favorite to win the gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games, but she failed on that mission.
The Pole player has been almost unplayable on the tennis courts in Paris. She won 31 of 32 of the last matches played at Roland Garros before arriving in the French capital for the Olympics.
Arriving in Paris with that type of track record, she was expected to do really well, and an undisputed favorite for the gold medal. Anything but that would have been considered a failure for the World No. 1, and that’s why she was so disappointed after losing her semi-final match to Qinwen Zheng.
The loss against Zheng was stunning in many ways. Mostly because she was overwhelmed by the Chinese player. That was a massive problem because Swiatek appeared to be hugely confident heading into the Olympics, and this loss snapped her back to reality.
She talked about it openly with the media as she’s never been one to hide much. We’ve seen her cry on the courts, and she has talked about her mental health before. What she had to say after the Olympic Games was interesting because she laid the blame on herself.
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“I actually realized yesterday that I wasn’t really playing for myself. I was more playing for everybody else, for the country, for my team, for everybody that hoped that I’m going to win a medal and probably win a gold medal. I wasn’t quite aware how deep it was in me and how much baggage that was. I know that I haven’t been playing my A-game here probably.”
Swiatek looked great on the tennis courts for the most part, even though she didn’t really look her best in some matches. In her own assessment, she wasn’t playing her best tennis, which is really true for the match against Zheng.
That was a bad performance, but she recognized that she was arrogant in the way she approached pressure, trying to learn humility.
“I wasn’t feeling like I can move really naturally and in a way that I’m used to on clay. I’m happy anyway that I pushed through that and I’m here with a bronze medal.”
“I was maybe a little bit too arrogant with myself because I thought that I handled so much pressure before that I think I’m going to handle this one as well. And now I actually am really motivated to work even harder and I think I’m going to have a little bit more humility.”
In the end, it wasn’t all for nothing because she still had some cool memories. She got to play in front of her father at the Olympics, who is a former Olympian himself.
She won the bronze medal, which is not the one she wanted, but it’s still a medal, and there are only three to be won, and many athletes who want one.
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Alcaraz Set To Lose Millions In Bonus Payment For Withdrawing From Montreal
by Nurein Ahmed
Carlos Alcaraz will top many lists this year, thanks to a stellar 2024, but he’s unlikely to finish the season as the highest beneficiary of the ATP bonus scheme.
Last year, the ATP introduced the Bonus Pool distribution as part of its OneVision strategy aimed at providing additional monetary incentives for the top-performing players at the ATP 500 and ATP Masters and year-end championships, also known as the ATP Finals.
The top five players who accumulated the most points at the ATP 500-level tournaments and played a minimum of four events in this category shared a bonus amount of $1.3 million.
World No. 5 Daniil Medvedev headed the list and received the biggest bonus paycheck, $600,000. Alcaraz finished second and received $300,000. However, the Spaniard outperformed the rest of the field in the higher-tier tournaments.
For the Masters 1000 and ATP Finals combined, players shared a colossal bonus of $20 million. In addition, as many as 30 players with the most points from tournaments of that level stood to gain the bonuses.
Alcaraz topped the list after the 2023 ATP Finals, garnering 3,685 points. He won the Indian Wells and the Madrid Open. He was a runner-up in Cincinnati and a semifinalist in Turin. The 21-year-old earned $4.4 million in bonuses.
Medvedev finished second on this list ahead of current World No. 1 Jannik Sinner. One player who missed out on the list despite putting together a record-setting year was Novak Djokovic, who, despite winning two Masters (like Alcaraz), was not eligible for payment.
The Serbian did not fulfill the requirement of playing in all mandatory ATP 1000s. In fact, he missed five of the nine Masters, and the men’s governing body had a clear right, as per its rulebook, to chalk off his entire bonus check.
That’s almost the same fate that awaits Alcaraz, who has already withdrawn from the 2024 Canadian Open that will begin next week. The World No. 3 secured his spot in the gold medal match on Sunday against Djokovic at the Paris Olympics in their second meeting of the season.
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Why Alcaraz’s 2024 Bonus Payment Will Be Reduced By Half
Alcaraz has already missed one mandatory Masters (Rome) because of a forearm injury, which instantly reduces his bonus by 25%. Understandably, he will miss his second (Montreal) because of the Olympic Games.
This will result in a 50% decrease in the millions he was expected to receive at the end of the season. If Alcaraz misses a third mandatory Masters, like Cincinnati or Shanghai, then the bonus will be reduced by 75%.
He ranks fourth in the 2024 Masters 1000 and year-end Bonus Pool standings with 1400 points. Sinner tops the list with 2000 points and can pull clear of Alexander Zverev (2nd) and Medvedev (3rd) in Canada, where he will defend his title.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud, and Andrey Rublev have also accumulated at least 1000 points and are among the top 10 on the list. Grigor Dimitrov, Nicolas Jarry, and Tommy Paul will also reap big. The ATP has not yet announced the bonus amount for 2024.
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