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Iga Swiatek has been a vocal admirer of singing superstar Taylor Swift for a long time now. Recently, the Pole took on the popular ‘Swift vs Shakespeare’ challenge, where she struggled to differentiate between the verses of the two poets.
Swiatek is currently in action at the Bad Homburg Open. After a semifinals run at the French Open, this marks her first outing on grass courts. In Germany, the World No.8 disposed of Victoria Azarenka in her opening round, and is set to play Ekaterina Alexandrova for her quarterfinals encounter on Thursday, June 26.
As she gears up for the match, Iga Swiatek recently partook in the ‘Taylor Swift vs Shakespeare’ challenge. In a hilarious video shared by the official Bad Homburg Open social media channels, the 24-year-old consistently struggled to correctly guess whether a line in question was by Shakespeare or Swift. After failing a few questions in a row, the tennis star jokingly exclaimed,
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“Oh my god. Swifties are going to kick me out.”
Swiatek also later re-shared the video to her Instagram story and lamented her skill for this particular challenge, writing,
“Yes. I'm very bad at this. I'm sorry.”
Iga Swiatek reveals how Taylor Swift helped her in her teen years
Iga Swiatek has been a consistent supporter of Taylor Swift over the years, evening attending a concert during the Eras Tour. In 2023, the Pole gave a special shout-out to the singer. Competing in the French Open, the World No.8 celebrated her birthday by writing ‘I'm feeling 22! #Swiftie’ on the camera after her match.
Later, Swiatek admitted that the pop star’s songs helped her navigate her emotions when she was confused about life while also learning English, saying (as quoted by ESPN),
"You know, when I was younger and kind of confused about life and when I was a teenager, when I listened to her, I didn't feel alone. Also, I learned English by listening to her songs, so she was always kind of close to me.”
While Swiatek calls herself a ‘Swiftie’ she admitted that the singer doesn't feature on her pre-match playlist.
"I'm not listening to her before my matches. I don't think it will pump me up. Maybe 'Shake it Off' when I'm more stressed. Today was Lenny Kravitz, and usually I'm listening to more rock. Not too hard, but the bands that are kind of mainstream, and they have a lot of energy in their songs.”
A year after this, Taylor Swift extended her support to Iga Swiatek, sharing a personalised note for the tennis star congratulating her on her win at the 2024 French Open.
