There’s no hiding the fact that this is quite a surprise in the world of tennis. On Friday at noon, the WTA announced on its social media that Iga Świątek had withdrawn from the penultimate 1000-ranked tournament this year . And in Beijing, she was supposed to defend the title she won 12 months ago, when she confidently defeated Ludmila Samsonova in the final .
Back then she started from a different position, a moment earlier she lost the number one in the world ranking to Aryna Sabalenka . She showed the Belarusian that she will not give up, and in the “Tournament of Champions” in Cancun she achieved her goal. And she still has this number one, although it may change soon.
Sports psychologist spoke of “burnout syndrome”. Iga Świątek was under a lot of pressure. And she may need a rest
What is more worrying is that the WTA – explaining the Polish woman’s decision – quoted the expression “personal matters”. Without explaining what it is about, it sounds very ominous. The words spoken by Dariusz Nowicki , a master class sports psychologist of the Polish Psychological Association, come back to mind, who in a conversation with journalist Artur Gac from Interia said: “Iga is very overloaded and sooner or later, hopefully as late as possible, she will experience burnout syndrome. Whether it will turn into depression or will end with a certain period of fatigue and a return to sports, I do not know, but I am afraid that such a dark scenario is hanging in the air”. Those words were spoken right after the tennis players’ Olympic struggles.
After the US Open, Dariusz Nowicki, in another interview with Interia, added : – Since then, Iga has had two defeats, which have caused many different negative comments, most often under the slogan: “fire the co-workers, because it’s their fault”, but there are very few voices saying that this is probably the result of overload. All those that Iga succumbed to, not only in the context of being at the top of the world ranking, which is extremely demanding physically and mentally, because you have to be in the tournaments all the time and maintain your form.
But above all in the context of the fact that the Olympic Games in Paris were, in my opinion, the strongest stress factor that Iga has encountered in recent years.
~ psychologist Dariusz Nowicki in an interview with Interia
– And maybe even comparable to what she had to experience at the beginning of her domination of the ranking list.”
Aryna Sabalenka in pursuit of Iga Świątek. The Belarusian can still achieve her goal in China
It is possible that since Iga Świątek does not mention any injury, she needs time to rest mentally. Although in this situation sports matters are relegated to the background, it is worth mentioning them. The Pole’s withdrawal from Beijing will have consequences in the ranking, Iga will certainly lose a significant part of her advantage over Aryna Sabalenka.
A year ago, the Raszyn player scored 1,000 points in the Chinese capital – this achievement will be taken away from her. Her advantage over Aryna Sabalenka is now 2,169 points , and it will be the same next Monday. The Belarusian, on the other hand, is defending only 215 points in Beijing for the quarterfinals in 2023.
So, as of today, her loss will be 1284 points. She can score an even thousand here, so she won’t overtake the Pole anyway. This can happen in Wuhan at the earliest , where the ladies will move later. Another thousand-meter tournament will be played there, but with a smaller line-up – it will last a week, not two weeks. And this will be the moment when there may be a real change in the WTA leader’s seat, even if Świątek plays here.
In Beijing, however, there is a possible change in the WTA Race ranking – reflecting the situation this season, without autumn 2023. In this ranking, after Sabalenka’s success at the US Open, the Polish player’s advantage has fallen to just 409 points. Sabalenka needs to advance to the final to overtake the Polish player. And this will mean that she actually has a better situation than our 23-year-old in the fight for the number one position at the end of the year.
