In this digital age, staying away from social media is hardly an option. Ask Iga Swiatek, who has learned it the hard way. A few years back, the former World Number 1 preferred staying away from it and even deleted social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter on her phone. However, her growing popularity meant that she had to be active among her fanbase. And that is when she started embracing social media life. Ahead of the new year, she gave insights into how her views surrounding social media changed.

Earlier this week, the Tennis Insider Club’s second season was released. The first episode featured Iga Swiatek, who talked about various subjects, from her early life in tennis to her achieving glory. One such conversation was about how she embraced social media as she became popular.

Swiatek said, “I would say before I was only tennis, tennis, and tennis. I even like, I’m deleting Instagram, Twitter, the notification on my emails. So at the beginning it was good for me to be more focused. But now you know, just can’t do that anymore because if you’re going to do that for what like 40 weeks per year, that’s not a life anymore. So I’m mixing it up.”

Despite using social media now, Swiatek is taking it cautiously and even admitted the devastating side effects of it. She doesn’t use it during her tournaments and prefers staying away from it during those times. Taking about the ill-effects of it, she revealed,

“I would say I’m doing good job, like, separating that. I dont use really social media during the tournaments. I just post my stuff and that’s all. For sure, when I go on social media when I’m not playing tournaments, yeah, it can distract a person.”

Swiatek tested positive for a banned substance, trimetazidine, which was later attributed to contaminated over-the-counter medication she was using to manage sleep issues and jet lag. The 23-year-old served a one-month suspension and forfeited 390 ranking points and $159,000 in prize money. As per The Guardian, Swiatek recently revealed that she feared a more negative reaction from the public following her doping ban. But that time too. She got it covered!

“I haven’t been much on the internet. I try to just go on with my life and focus on different things, focus on preparing for the season and on tennis, because this is the best thing you can do after a case like that,” admitted Swiatek.

Furthermore, with the advent of social media, the players’ actions are closely monitored and followed. As a result, when a player is not performing well, there is much scrutiny, which Swiatek strongly condemned.

When Iga Swiatek voiced concerns over growing hatred on social media

Time and again, we have seen top players fall prey to inappropriate comments on social media. It can significantly affect the morale of the players and even their mental health. Swiatek raised this concern and even admitted to falling prey to it.

During an interview, she mentioned, “It happened to me a couple of times, although I don’t go to that inbox anymore, I focus on looking at the messages of my close people. Of course there is a lot of hatred, in my case I try to avoid it every time I browse the internet. If it is related to betting? I don’t know the numbers, I never researched those topics, but I’m sure people get very excited when it comes to making or losing money. It will probably have a big impact, but I don’t know what the numbers are, I imagine it will be easy to check.”

While social media has become an inseparable part of a player’s life, such incidents put a bad light on it. What do you think about the impact of social media on the world of sports? Let us know your views in the comments below.