“You Need Mental Break” – Iga Swiatek Hits Out at US Open Journalist Over Scheduling Debate

“Our calendar is crazy, probably the toughest one in sports.” Iga Swiatek has been pretty vocal about the issues with scheduling in the tennis world. The season starts in early January and goes on until the end of November, making it the longest global season in sports. And when she lost the quarterfinal match against Amanda Anisimova with a scoreline of 6-4, 6-3, the tennis community seemed to attribute the loss to her apparent fatigue. After all, she has remained active throughout the season. But when a journalist asked her about the scheduling distress, she couldn’t help but lash out. 

During the post-match press conference, a journalist asked Iga Swiatek about her fatigue. He believed that her win at Wimbledon and then the victory at the Cincinnati Open must have exhausted her. Well, including the US Open singles and mixed doubles, this was her 17th tournament this season. But things didn’t seem exhausting for the Polish star. She claimed, “Well, I don’t know. It’s not like my matches were exhausting here.” This led the journalist to ask her if she needed a mental break. And that’s when she seemed to lose it. 

“Why would you say that?” Swiatek asked. The journalist rushed to defend the question and claimed that it was because the world No. 2 has been playing a lot in a row. So, did she look forward to a break? Well, not really! This frustrated her even more, and she jibed, “Well, talk to people responsible for the schedule. Do you need mental break?” When the journalist asked for clarification, she said, “You look like you need mental break.” 

Iga Swiatek was visibly upset with the conversation. When the journalist confessed that he actually needed a break, the 24-year-old lashed out and asked what he was doing at the presser in that case. And when he claimed that he had to get to the end of the 2025 US Open, all he received was an angry “good luck” from the tennis star. This interaction raised a lot of eyebrows among the tennis enthusiasts. And the reason was that Iga Swiatek had previously criticized the scheduling of the tennis tournaments.

Iga Swiatek opened up about the toughness of 2024 at last year’s Cincinnati Open. Her stance remained the same earlier in June 2025, as well. Let’s hear what she had to say, shall we?

Iga Swiatek once stood against the scheduling of tournaments in the tennis realm

In a press conference for the 2024 Cincinnati Open, Swiatek told the media, “There are sports that are really tough because, physically, you might get beat up. But most sports have four months off, sometimes even six. Our schedule is crazy, and it’s getting more crazy every year, which is scary. You just have to train wisely.” Such a schedule often exacted a heavy toll from the athletes, who got almost no time to recover. Even at the 2025 US Open Mixed Doubles, she had to show up just 12 hours after winning the Cincinnati Open. 

But Iga Swiatek knew that the schedule was a challenge for the players’ mental health. In late June this year, she told the media, “The scheduling is super intense. It’s too intense. There’s no point for us to play over 20 tournaments in a year. Sometimes we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we’re going to get a zero in the ranking.”

According to her, the obligations and rules about the mandatory tournaments simply put unnecessary pressure on the athletes. She believed that people would still watch the sport if the players competed in lesser tournaments. After all, the quality of things would be better that way. So, what went wrong at the US Open post-quarterfinal press conference? Was her response a reaction to her disappointment about her loss? 

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