US Open: Watch Iga Swiatek handle 'dumb' question on why fans want her sweaty towels

Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek was made to field some tricky questions in her post-match press conference after brushing aside 13th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the fourth round of the US Open 2025. The Pole was asked about players giving away souvenirs to fans in the wake of an incident where a Polish man snatched a match-worn cap belonging to Kamil Majchrzak from a child in the stands.

When addressing the matter, Swiatek was confronted with a rather unusual query, as a reporter asked whether she found it strange that people wanted her sweaty towels after matches.

Swiatek remained composed and even injected some humour into her response, recalling her own childhood fandom. “No, not strange,” she replied. “Because I would love to have a sweaty towel of Rafa’s when I was a kid, so, no.”

Some fans expressed surprise at the question posed by the reporter.

A long-time admirer of Rafael Nadal, Swiatek then took a playful swipe at the Polish man — identified as Piotr Szczerek, the head of a paving company in Poland — for snatching Majchrzak’s signed cap away from a boy in the crowd.

The episode drew widespread criticism of Szczerek on social media. It began when Majchrzak was signing tennis balls following his second-round victory over Karen Khachanov last week at Flushing Meadows. After removing his cap and autographing it, he attempted to hand it to a young boy courtside. However, Szczerek, who was standing next to the boy, seized the cap and stuffed it into his bag. The child was visibly distraught, shouting in protest, “What are you doing?”

Reflecting on the broader challenge of distributing memorabilia fairly, Swiatek admitted the process can be fraught. “Well, sometimes it’s strange when I try to give something to the kid and they get that, grabs it, then I’m like, ‘Come on, that’s not the point.’”

She elaborated further: “Usually seven people reach out for one thing. If it’s a girl and the boys have longer arms, she’s not going to catch it. But I usually throw it at the person that’s supposed to get it. I try to be fair — I pick a person randomly, or whoever shouts louder. I know it’s not fair, but not everybody is going to be happy.”

Meanwhile, Szczerek issued a public apology and ensured the signed cap was delivered to the boy from whom he had snatched it. “I would like to unequivocally apologise to the young boy, his family, all the fans, and the player himself,” he said in a statement released on social media.

Swiatek, the current World No. 2, now turns her attention back to the court. She is set to face eighth seed Amanda Anisimova in the semi-finals on Wednesday, as she bids to return to the last four in New York for the first time since her 2022 triumph at Flushing Meadows.