PARIS — Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1, bounced back to win her bronze medal match on Friday, 24 hours after suffering what she described as one of the toughest losses of her career.

Swiatek was the heaviest of favorites to win the gold medal in singles. She had lost just once at Roland Garros since 2020, and she was playing all her matches on Court Philippe Chatrier, her happy place.

Instead, Zheng Quinwen, beat her handily in straight sets, as Swiatek’s usually lethal and clinical game on clay descended into an array of errors that left her unable to complete her post-match interviews and stalking teary-eyed through the press area.

On Friday though, Swiatek recovered to beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1 to win Poland’s first medal in tennis, then tried to explain why the loss to Zheng had left her, in her words, feeling like someone had broken her heart, just as her loss in Tokyo three years ago had.

Swiatek said she realized Thursday that she hadn’t been playing for herself like she usually does, that she was playing “for everybody else, for the country, for my team, for everybody that hopes, you know, that I’m going to win a medal and probably, you know, win a gold medal.”

She said she had talked about it ahead of the competition but she hadn’t been aware just how deep the feeling was, “how much of a baggage it was.”

This was the raw and brutally honest version of Swiatek that was so familiar during her first years on tour, when she would often come off as an open book in conversations with journalists.

As often happens when players rise to the level of worldwide fame that Swiatek has achieved, she is far more closed off and guarded now. Thursday’s lost left her unfiltered once more, and it seemed to be helpful for her to unload.

She said the consequences of losing and having to wait another four years for a chance at the gold medal weighed on her as well. On tour, she said, she knows if she loses she will have a chance at the same tournament in 12 months.

She said no one would have wanted to see how much she cried after the loss, for hours, longer than she had since perhaps a loss at the 2021 Australian Open following her first Grand slam title.

“I cried like, for like three days,” she said of that experience. “I think if I wouldn’t play today, I would cry for a week. So I needed to get it together. I cried for like six hours yesterday. It was really tough.”

Swiatek has often talked about trying to keep tennis as just one aspect of her life, and just sport, after all, not life or death. But she couldn’t do that Thursday.

“It’s crazy, honestly,” she said of where her mind took her. “Because of the fact that I am number one for like such a long time and I won so many tournaments. I literally felt that, that I can handle like everything, you know, and, and this tournament showed me that it’s still not the case. I was maybe a little bit arrogant with myself because I thought that I had so much pressure before that I think I’m going to handle this one as well. Now I actually am really motivated to work a bit harder.”

She is still just 23, she pointed out.

“I don’t know everything about sports and about myself.”

For years, Rafael Nadal has been her role model.

She has another one now, she said: Carlos Alcaraz, whose delight in the game most of the time has caused envy throughout the sport.

“He’s enjoying like every minute of it,” she said. “A great example of actually how to handle all of that.”

(Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images)