Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has told world no.1 Iga Swiatek to "suck it up" after the Polish star complained of tiredness ahead of next week's US Open.
Defending champion Swiatek goes into the tournament at Flushing Meadows as no.1 seed and gets her tilt for another title under way on Monday against unseeded Swede Rebecca Peterson. She comes into the US Open off the back of a semi-final defeat in the Cincinnati Open, losing to Coco Gauff, whom she had beaten in straight sets in all seven of their previous encounters.
Swiatek was far from downbeat, though, admitting after the match: "I would say my tank of fuel is pretty empty. Honestly, I’m not even going to kind of regret a lot because I’m happy that I’m going to have days off now." But Navratilova has dismissed Swiatek's complaints over fatigue and called on the 22-year-old to "get on with it" ahead of her clash with Peterson.
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"I would be tired after the US Open but not before the US Open," Navratilova said. "The only time I remember being tired before the US Open was in 1976, when we played World Team Tennis: we played non-stop tennis from April, we had a three-week break for Wimbledon, and then we played non-stop until two weeks before the US Open.
“The stress on the players, I understand that – and Iga being Polish she had to play Warsaw. Normally, if she wasn’t Polish, she would have never played [that event] and would have taken an extra couple of weeks of rest so maybe that’s why she’s tired.
“But I still have to say, ‘Come on, just suck it up’. It’s September, you didn’t play that many tournaments and this is the US Open. So if you can’t get up for that… if you’re that mentally tired, don’t play."
Swiatek has had a fairly hectic schedule these last few months, also competing at the Poland Open in Warsaw and Canadian Open at Montreal since her shock exit at Wimbledon at the beginning of July. Navratilova suggested Swiatek should consider "forcing herself to take a vacation", though was adamant she had never given herself "permission" to do that in her own glittering career.
“Or just get on with it and say, ‘Okay, I’m fine. It’s just two weeks, it’s seven matches, I literally have to work hard [for] maybe 20 hours, these next two weeks,'" the 18-time singles Grand Slam winner continued.
“You just suck it up and say, ‘Okay, get on with it’ and put it in perspective to what normal people do for a living. Yeah, you’re in the spotlight but you know, nice problem, right?
“This is what you want all your life and here you are. So you just gotta toughen up on that front. I don’t have that much sympathy for that when I think about what we went through. Get on with it.”
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