Iga Swiatek, Polish Tennis player moved into the third round of the US Open after a hard-fought 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Suzan Lamens on Thursday. Her post-match press conference drew attention when Swiatek came into a heated exchange with a reporter.

During the media interaction, a journalist asked Swiatek, the No. 2 seed, if she would consider wearing beads in her hair, seemingly referring to Naomi Osaka’s style. Swiatek looked surprised and shot back, “What kind of question is that, excuse me? If I wanted to weave beads in my hair? No. What’s going on?” 

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The exchange ended awkwardly as the reporter left the room, and Swiatek buried her face in her hands.

Questioned on double standards in Sport

The Polish star also faced pointed questions about whether the recent clash between Taylor Townsend and Jelena Ostapenko showed a double standard in sports. 

Swiatek admitted she was not fully aware of the incident, “I can’t speak about every sport… I was focused on my early match, so I’m not caught up on that. But you can’t really judge the whole community by one person’s behavior,” she explained. 

Despite her response, the reporter continued pressing her before the English session ended.

Netizens reacts

Social media users praised how ‘smartly’ Swiatek managed to reply to the reporter, an X (formerly Twitter) user wrote, “What the heck was the reporter trying to do? Catch her saying yes and accuse her of culture appropriation or have her say no and label her as racist? It’s all crazy! She’s too smart to answer this stupidity.”

Another user wrote, “The American media is the enemy of the people.”

One more user joined the conversation and noted, “Very weird question. Some journalists intentionally ask disingenuous questions to put athletes on the spot. Nice response.”

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Eyes on third round clash

With the off-court drama behind her, Swiatek now turns her focus to the third round, where she will face Anna Kalinskaya on Saturday.