The tactic Iga Swiatek once used that John McEnroe said was ‘below the belt’ and reminded him of a former ATP player

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John McEnroe has never been afraid to call out behaviour he does not like, and Iga Swiatek was on the end of this for something she did in 2022.

Swiatek is a six-time Grand Slam champion, and she is often praised for her performances on the court.

However, she has not evaded criticism for her whole career, with Swiatek receiving backlash earlier this year at Indian Wells.

McEnroe did not publicly comment on that incident, but he did speak out about an unsportsmanlike tactic he thought Swiatek was using in 2022.

John McEnroe accused Iga Swiatek of ‘below the belt’ tactic at the 2022 US Open

The 2022 season was perhaps the best of Swiatek’s career so far, as she won two Grand Slam titles and went on a historic 37-match winning streak.

One of those major titles came at the US Open, where an incident took place in her third round match against Lauren Davis.

Swiatek beat Davis, 6-3 6-4, in a fairly uneventful match on the surface of things, but something happened during this match that got lots of people talking.

After losing the first set, Davis was looking to make a comeback and got an early break in the second.

The American was attempting to consolidate that break and faced an important point at 30-30, where Swiatek was seen to have spread her arms out when Davis was attempting to hit a backhand.

Davis did win that point, but many tennis fans were not happy with Swiatek for what they deemed to be an attempted distraction tactic, and called out previous times that the Pole had done the same thing before.

When McEnroe was shown this incident, he appeared to agree with the consensus and suggested that he did not think it should have been allowed to happen.

Speaking as a pundit on Eurosport, McEnroe also recalled one of his own doubles match and accused French-Iranian player Mansour Bahrami of doing something similar.

“I don’t know about that. I don’t think that’s legal…that is a little bit below the belt,” McEnroe said at the time.

“The last time I saw that was when I was playing in 1986 I believe and [Mansour] Bahrami came in and served, and put his hands wide open and said, ‘Hit me’. And my partner Peter Fleming hit him in the forehead. And I said, ‘He’s a joke, this guy! I don’t understand what he’s doing. This is serious’.

“And Bahrami was like ‘Good shot Peter, good shot!’ He loved it. I don’t think Swiatek has to do that. She’s so good it seems…but she’ll learn. She’s 21.”

Swiatek would go on to win the US Open title that year, but this was not the last time that this would happen.

What has Iga Swiatek said in response to criticism about this?

Just a month after winning the US Open, the fallout from this situation was raised again after Swiatek was adjudged to have done a similar thing in the San Diego Open final against Donna Vekic.

This time Swiatek addressed the criticism and after winning the WTA 500 title, she posted a message on social media and apologised to Vekic.

Swiatek wrote on X (formerly known on Twitter), “This is the best prize/trophy ever! Thank you San Diego for an amazing (cloudy) week and this unique vibe. I love it here. And congrats @DonnaVekic for your amazing run! And sorry for waving my hands at the net.”

In an interview with Sport.pl, Swiatek was also asked about why she thought she kept doing this at the net.

“I can’t control it, but I hope it will never happen again,” Swiatek said at the time. “We are working on it. It is a stress reaction to what is happening. It is an involuntary reaction. I did it during the US Open, and as I recall it was a stressful moment. In San Diego, I did it unconsciously.

“Right after the game I approached Donna and apologised. She had no hard feelings, it turned out she didn’t recall this at all. I hope fans will understand me as well. I’m aware of the many negative comments on the internet concerning this incident. I’m not proud of the fact that sometimes I’m not in control of what I do on the court.”

Since this incident unfolded, there appear to have been less incidents of Swiatek doing this which suggests that her response to the backlash was genuine.