Ostrava (Czech Republic) – Vice-champion of the WTA 500 in Ostrava, world number 1 Iga Swiatek took advantage of World Mental Health Week to donate all of the prizes she received this week to non-profit organizations in Poland which s deal with the subject.

The world ranking leader made the announcement during the awards ceremony on Sunday and gave more details about the initiative during her press conference. “I really wanted to play well here to raise a big amount of money to give away. I’m really happy to be able to do that,” Swiatek said. “I want to raise awareness so people know they can ask for help when they need it or help others if they have the resources. I’m very happy to use my position in this way.”

Pledging to donate his prize to Polish non-profit organizations before #WorldMentalHealthDay tomorrow 🧠@iga_swiatek continue to be an inspiration on and off the pitch 💜#OstravaOpen pic.twitter.com/oUc2HAPhZd

– wta (@WTA) October 9, 2022

For the campaign, Swiatek received a prize of 58,032 euros, while champion Barbora Krejcikova receives 93,823 euros. This is the second consecutive season that the Polish performs this type of action. She had already done the same thing last year in Indian Wells.. The leader of the rankings is very committed to the subject of mental health in sport and always highlights sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz as one of the main figures of her team and travels the circuit with her throughout the season. .

After Balanced match of 3:15 against Krejcikova, which ended in partials of 5/7, 7/6 (7-4) and 6/3 for the Czech, Swiatek congratulated his opponent several times. Krejcikova even missed three months of the season due to an elbow injury and won her second consecutive title on hard and covered courts in Europe.

“Barbora is an amazing player. We haven’t met much this season and I’m really happy to see her again because you play really solid tennis and we need more people like her on the WTA Tour.”

The next meeting will be in San Diego
After playing four hard and indoor matches in the Czech Republic, Swiatek is crossing the ocean and will be contesting the WTA 500 next week in San Diego, USA. The tournament has a very hard key. The world number 1 enters directly into the round of 16 and awaits the winner between the Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza and the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, current champion of Wimbledon.

The Polish quarter still includes North American Coco Gauff, world number 8 and seeded 6 in the tournament, who makes her debut against a qualified tennis player and can face Canadian Bianca Andreescu or Russian Liudmila Samsonova in the round of 16. final.