World number one women tennis player Iga Swiatek clinched her second French Open title in three years as she defeated Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 on Saturday. Swiatek, who has now won 35 consecutive matches, matched the longest unbeaten streak since Venus Williams in 2000.
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Following her triumph, the star tennis player was quizzed about her ‘makeup‘ routine in a two-part question during the post-match press conference.
“One technical question and one which is not,” the reporter said. “The technical is: What is your best shot? Someone says it’s the forehand; someone says it’s the return down-the-line backhand. What do you think? This is the first question. The second question is: Outside of the court, when you go to a party, do you use makeup? Do you like to go elegant and smart and so on? Because many players we have seen in the past, they were staying hours in front of the mirror before going on court and using the makeup. And you seem very natural like this.”
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PremiumTo this, the 21-year-old replied in negative and said, “Okay. Thank you. Well, I’m wearing a hat, so I don’t have to worry about my hair. That’s the most positive thing. I don’t wear makeup, because I don’t feel like I kind of have to, and also, I don’t think that will change something. Also, it’s going to come off when I use a towel.”
“Well, that’s … Wow, I don’t have that in my PR brief, you know, so it’s hard to answer. Well, I’m not using makeup like really often. I honestly just learned how to do makeup like six months ago, so that’s pretty embarrassing,” she added.
Following the media interaction, popular tennis broadcaster Catherine Whitaker took to Twitter to share the transcript and wrote, “Here’s a thing that World Number One and freshly crowned French Open Champion Iga Swiatek was asked in her press conference today. Presenting without comment because there are no words.”
Here’s a thing that World Number One and freshly crowned French Open Champion Iga Swiatek was asked in her press conference today. Presenting without comment because there are no words. pic.twitter.com/rGCbA0Kc8k
— Catherine Whitaker (@CWhitakerSport) June 4, 2022
Netizens were quick to point out the underlying sexism and slammed the journalist for asking a sports champion about makeup.
“As a woman, even if you are at the top of your sport, you cannot avoid being asked about makeup,” a user wrote.
What on earth are we doing here? https://t.co/dmADq0lSHQ
— Trey Mongrue (@TreyMongrue) June 5, 2022
Another sports reporter Marnie Vinall tweeted: “Excited for Rafa to be asked about his makeup choices in his presser tomorrow.”
I’m so angry about this.
1) She’s the BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD.
2) The more interesting q is to turn that back – why do you expect your female athletes to present themselves made-up for you?
Will obv retract if the men’s champion today gets asked about his beauty routine. https://t.co/VepM5dMoZe
— Carrie Dunn (@carriesparkle) June 5, 2022
“Too many female sports competitors have to put up with this sexist c**p. Iga Swiatek deserves better. Can you imagine Nadal, Federer or Djokovic being quizzed about their favourite shaving cream?” a user wrote on the microblogging site.
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