Iga Swiatek responded with humor to the coincidence of sharing her name with the stadium hosting the main tennis court at the 2023 Canadian Open in Montreal.
Swiatek enters the WTA 1000 event on the back of winning her fourth title of the season at the Warsaw Open in Poland. On July 30, the World No. 1 defeated Laura Siegemund 6-0, 6-1 in the final to claim her first-ever title on home soil and her 15th career title overall.
Following a bye in the first round of the event in Montreal, the top seed will take on the winner of the match between Karolina Pliskova and Lin Zhu in the second round.
Incidentally, Swiatek shares her name with the main court at the Canadian Open, which is known as the “Stade IGA” (IGA Stadium). Formerly called the Du Maurier Stadium and Uniprix Stadium, the venue was renamed to Stade IGA in 2018, after a major supermarket in Quebec.
During her pre-tournament press conference, the 22-year-old joked about the privilege of having the stadium named after her and suggested that other tournaments should adopt a similar practice.
“Well, having the stadium named after me, huge privilege. Let’s pretend that’s the story. No, but it’s just a nice coincidence, so yeah, it’s fun. I feel more happy when I see that its ‘Iga Stadium’ so it’s nice. They should do this more often,” Iga Swiatek said.
The Pole was also spotted happily posing in front of her namesake stadium while gearing up for the event.
“Iga Swiatek is just a little more complete than Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina” – Emma Raducanu’s former coach Nigel Sears
Emma Raducanu’s former coach Nigel Sears recently predicted that Iga Swiatek would end the year as the World No. 1, ahead of Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, hailing the Pole as the “more complete” player.
“Well if I had to bet, I’d go with [Iga] Swiatek because it’s probably going to Swiatek, Rybakina, or Sabalanka. Those three. But I think Swiatek is just a little more complete than the other two. So I’m going to go with Swiatek,” Sears said.
Due to their consistent success over the course of the 2023 season, many have dubbed the trio of Swiatek, Sabalenka, and Rybakina the women’s ‘Big 3’, likening their dominance to that of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic.
However, Iga Swiatek recently dismissed any such comparisons, deeming them to be premature as Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic were significantly more accomplished than them.
“When it comes to the big three, the naming is so hasty, because in men’s tennis Djokovic, Federer and Nadal have achieved ‘a little’ more than us,” she told Onet Przeglad Sportowy.
