Iga Swiatek raises EUR 420,000 in charity match for Ukraine
World number one Iga Swiatek played a charity match in her home country of Poland last weekend.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Jul 26, 2022, 08:04 am
This week, Iga Swiatek is back in the tournament, for the first time after her third-round loss at Wimbledon. In Warsaw, the local hero is top seeded, meeting compatriot Magdalena Frech in round 1.
But Swiatek was already in action at the weekend, for a good cause. Under the motto "Iga Swiatek and Friends for Ukraine", Swiatek brought in around 420,000 euros in Kraków, which is to be divided between the United24 initiative launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Unicef Poland and the Elina Svitolina Foundation.
Also Svitolina and Stakhovsky there
The pregnant Elina Svitolina was also there, she acted as a referee in the set between Swiatek and Radwanska (Radwanska won 6:4).
"I never imagined that a war could be so close. I was born in times when there was relative peace in our part of Europe," Swiatek said . "I noticed that initially the tennis world was very interested in what was happening in Ukraine. Many tennis players wore ribbons in the colors of the country. However, over time this changed and the ribbons disappeared after a few games." However, she will keep her band on, she promised.
Before the singles match between Swiatek and Radwanska, Sergiy Stakhovsky also grabbed a racket alongside Radwanska against Swiatek and a young Polish player.
Stakhovsky retired earlier this year and has been on duty for his homeland since the start of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, along with former Ukrainian players Andrej Medvedev and Aleksandr Dolgopolov.