“I believe in witchcraft & superstitions” – Iga Swiatek picked as Wimbledon title favorite by Andrea Petkovic thanks to one bizarre reason

Andrea Petkovic shared a bizarre reason why she believes Iga Swiatek would win Wimbledon. The Pole had a successful Bad Homburg Open run, finishing as runners-up behind World No. 3 Jessica Pegula.

Andrea Petkovic, the first German player to reach the top 10 in the WTA rankings 2011 since Steffi Graf in 1999, amassed seven WTA Tour singles titles in her career. Having retired in 2022, the 37-year-old created a Substack, Finite Jest, to offer tennis insights and share her opinions on players and matches.

Recently, one of Petkovic’s excerpts about Iga Swiatek went up on X, which had a bizarre reason why she thinks Iga Swiatek would win Wimbledon. The former German player shared that she noticed ‘a falcon or a hawk or an eagle’ above the Pole’s head in Germany, and her superstitious belief indicated Swiatek’s win at Wimbledon.

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"Now to who I think will win Wimbledon for completely irrational reasons. During 2 matches in Bad Homburg, a falcon or a hawk or an eagle (I’m clearly not an ornithologist) was circling above Iga Swiatek’s head for minutes at end. Those who have followed me for awhile know that my toxic trait is that I believe in witchcraft and superstitions. I believe that the falcon, let’s say it was a falcon, was a sign that Iga will win Wimbledon. I actually also thought she played great in Bad Homburg so it’s not only the falcon. But the falcon definitely helps."

Swiatek, the four-time French Open champion, faced a semifinal exit from this year's edition after losing to Aryna Sabalenka in two sets.

Iga Swiatek opined on hectic schedules for tennis players ahead of her Wimbledon stint

In a press conference ahead of Wimbledon, the five-time Grand Slam champion opined on the players' hectic schedules and how mandatory appearances in tournaments to improve rankings cause their playing quality to drop. She also expressed distaste for feeling compelled to play in the WTA 500s at the cost of representing her nation sometimes.

"I think the scheduling is super intense. It's too intense. There's no point for us to play, like, over 20 tournaments in a year. Sometimes we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we're going to get a zero in the ranking. I think these kind of obligations and the rules about mandatory tournaments just put pressure on us."

Swiatek was named on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world and won the Polish Sports Personality of the Year in 2023.

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About the author

Agnijeeta Majumder

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

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