Olympics loss takes a serious toll on Polish tennis star Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek became only the fourth World No. 1 to win an Olympic medal and also captured her native Poland's first top-three finish in tennis on Friday, defeating Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-2, 6-1.

During her post-match interview, however, Swiatek described why the victory was bittersweet.

The four-time (and three-time reigning) French Open champion had cemented herself as the Queen of Clay even before the Summer Olympics started in Paris, but her semifinal upset loss to Zheng Quinwen in straight sets took a toll on her emotionally.

Swiatek was a heavy favorite to win the gold medal in singles, having only lost once at Roland Garros since 2020.

The Athletic's Matthew Futterman passes along that the 2022 U.S. Open victor said that "no one would have wanted to see how much she cried after the loss, for hours."

"I think if I wouldn’t play today, I would cry for a week. So I needed to get it together. I cried for like six hours yesterday. It was really tough," Swiatek said, per per Futterman .

The 23-year-old Swiatek — a noted fan of the King of Clay (Rafael Nadal) — added that her shortcoming in the Summer Games has given her extra motivation.

"It’s crazy, honestly," Swiatek explained. "Because of the fact that I am number one for like such a long time and I won so many tournaments. I literally felt that, that I can handle like everything, you know, and, and this tournament showed me that it’s still not the case. I was maybe a little bit arrogant with myself because I thought that I had so much pressure before that I think I’m going to handle this one as well. Now I actually am really motivated to work a bit harder."