Iga Swiatek calls out "fake news" after being misquoted about Rafael Nadal winning "everything"

Iga Swiatek did not hesitate to call out "fake news" on social media after she was misquoted in a viral tweet.

Speaking at the 2023 Italian Open after her third-round victory over Lesia Tsurenko, the World No. 1 had touched on why it was important for a top player to be good on all three surfaces instead of just being a specialist on one. Using her idol Rafael Nadal as example, the Pole had said:

"For sure I feel like, yeah, you should be good on all surfaces. As you could see, Rafa, he's called clay court specialist, but he won so many tournaments on hard court and grass as well. The goal is to be good everywhere."

However, when We Are Tennis' Twitter account reshared the quote, a few changes were made to what Iga Swiatek had said.

Most notably, Rafael Nadal winning "many tournaments" on hard court and grass turned into the Spaniard winning "everything." Similarly, the World No. 1 saying her goal was to "be good" everwhere embellished into "winning everything like Rafael Nadal."

These changes did not sit well with the 21-year-old, who replied to the original tweet (which has since been deleted), saying that she didn't say that and that it was "fake news."

"I didn't say this. Why do you publish fake news?" Swiatek wrote.

Thankfully, We Are Tennis were quick to correct their mistake and aplogized to the 21-year-old for misquoting her.

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Iga Swiatek takes on Donna Vekic in Italian Open fourth round

Internazionali BNL D'Italia 2023 - Day Five

Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek will return to court on Monday for her fourth-round clash against Donna Vekic at the 2023 Italian Open. In four sets so far, the Pole has lost only two games, beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0, 6-0 and Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 6-0 in the second and third rounds in Rome respectively.

Vekic, on the other hand, has played two three-setters back-to-back, beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Liudmila Samsonova in her outings in the Italian capital so far. Swiatek has a 3-0 lead in the head-to-head clash against Vekic, having beaten her most recently in the final of the San Diego Open last year.

The winner of the clash will take on either Elena Rybakina or Marketa Vondrousouva in the quarterfinals. A potential semifinal meeting with Paula Badosa or Jelena Ostapenko looms large as well.

Meanwhile, 11th seed Veronika Kudermetova is the highest-ranked player left in the bottom half of the draw, followed by 12th seed Qinwen Zheng.