By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday October 10, 2021
Iga Swiatek usually tries to play her tennis matches with a clear mind, but she couldn’t help it when her mind wandered during Sunday’s 6-1, 6-0 trouncing of Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova.
Not because of the yawning scoreline, but rather, a lightbulb moment.
Swiatek, then and there, decided that she would donate her third-round prize money ($50,105) to a mental health charity, to honor WorldMentalHealthDay.
“We haven't chosen the exact, you know, nonprofit right now, because basically I came up with the idea during my match, which is not really professional,” she said. “But stay tuned to my social media. That's the message for the fans, because I'm going to be, you know, talking with you probably in the comments of my post about choosing the right organizations or foundations.”
Swiatek said she was inspired by Venus Williams, who celebrated #WorldMentalHealthDay by announcing an initiative with the WTA. The American legend teamed up with the tour to provide $2 million of free therapy to the public.
More details on that deal from the WTA:
“The $2 million USD free therapy giveaway will provide one month of free therapy through BetterHelp to those who sign up at www.betterhelp.com/venus , with the first $1 million USD immediately available and the second $1 million USD covered by BetterHelp for each ace hit by WTA players for the remainder of the 2021 WTA Tour season.”
“I was aware that this is World Mental Health Day,” Swiatek told reporters. “And actually I think Venus Williams inspired me a lot, because when I saw her statement and her initiative, I mean, that was just so great. I thought that even though I'm 20 and I don't feel like it's time for me yet to start a foundation or something, because still I need to focus on tennis, I can do some smaller things and maybe just take it step by step and just, you know, learn how to do this kind of stuff.”
After the match, Swiatek took to Twitter to announce more details on her feed: