Olympics-Tennis-Swiatek dries the tears to earn consolation bronze
Adds quotes
By Martyn Herman
PARIS, Aug 2 (Reuters) -Poland's Iga Swiatek admitted she cried for six hours after losing in the semi-finals of the Olympics but she returned to court on Friday to console herself by winning the bronze medal.
The 23-year-old took out her frustration on Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, winning6-2 6-1 at Roland Garros to become thefirst Polish player to get an Olympic medal in tennis.
The five-time Grand Slam champion had been a strong favourite for gold but suffered a shock semi-final defeat by China's Zheng Qinwen on Thursday.
Swiatek broke down in tears following her error-strewn loss to Zheng and while the bronze was not the colour she was expecting on her return to her favourite venue, at least it put a smile back on her face.
"I think if I hadn't played today I would cry for a week, so I needed to get it together," she told reporters.
"I probably cried for like six hours yesterday so, yeah, it was really tough. Sometimes it feels like it's sport and it's tennis and usually I'm able to have a distance to all of it and just understand that it's only one part of my life.
"But this time it was like somebody really broke my heart, so it's crazy, honestly."
Swiatek, dubbed the Queen of Clay, said that the expectation levels had weighed her down during the Olympic tournament.
"I actually realised 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," the four-time French Open champion told reporters.
"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. 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."
Swiatek, who last month won her third consecutive French Open title at Roland Garros, did not speak to media after losing to Zheng but was candid about her feelings a day later.
"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," she said.
"And now I actually am really motivated to work even harder and I think I'm going to have a little bit more humility."
The final between Zheng and Croatia's Donna Vekic takes place on Saturday.
Reporting by Martyn Herman
Editing by Toby Davis and Clare Fallon
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
