Over three weeks ago, Iga Świątek officially announced the end of her three-year collaboration with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. As she herself noted, during that time she climbed to real heights, so a significant part of her post was her thanks to the expert who has always been a support to her.
“His experience, analytical and strategic approach and vast knowledge of tennis meant that a few months later I started achieving successes I had never dreamed of. Our goal was to become No. 1 in the world and it was the Coach who first said it out loud,” read her measured statement.
It was then that people began to suspect that the decision of the Raszyn woman was influenced by her psychologist, Daria Abramowicz .
Views on the matter were varied. Former tennis player Joanna Sakowicz-Kostecka demanded evidence, pointing out that it is easy to make unsubstantiated accusations. As a current expert for one of the stations, she often attends tournaments as an observer, so she had many opportunities to see for herself how Abramowicz behaves. Nothing worried her.
“We saw a lot. But I have never noticed Daria deciding on the course of training. Daria is present and passes the ball. That’s it,” she commented firmly in an interview with Onet.
Journalist Ben Rothenberg even stated that although the woman is very committed and “smart”, she actually gets criticized because of her gender.
“Men are so skeptical about women playing leading roles in sports. Daria probably experiences this phenomenon too. Iga loses? Someone has to be blamed,” he said for “Przegląd Sportowy”.
However, a road cyclist who once worked with the psychologist had a completely different, decidedly negative opinion of her.
“I’m not surprised that Iga Świątek’s trainer recently resigned from his job. This woman has a terrible influence on people. She is calculating, cold and self-confident. In my opinion, she is simply a fake woman. (…) Working with women is a tough job. In some aspects, Ms. Abramowicz was certainly useful, but most of them botched it,” Piotr Zaradny did not mince his words in an interview for the weszlo.com portal.
