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The media team of WTA recently caught the ire of the tennis community after its report dissecting Iga Swiatek and Alexandra Eala's second-round match at the 2025 Madrid Open on Thursday (April 24) began doing the rounds on social media. While a few fans claimed that the women's governing body didn't want to pay its photographers, others felt that the incident set a dangerous precedent for other sporting organizations.
Swiatek and Eala are set to meet in a rematch of their 2025 Miami Open clash later on Thursday (April 24) at Caja Magica. To hype up the marquee match, WTA dedicated a separate article to the Pole and the Filipina on their website. However, they seemingly made a glaring mistake by employing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate the cover image.
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As is the case in its current phase, AI struggled in generating Iga Swiatek and Alexandra Eala's fingers, which was eventually noticed by the tennis community on Reddit. One fan insinuated that WTA was "cheap", prompting a few others to take umbrage at the Florida-based company.
"I assume they [heaven forbid] have to actually pay photographers to use the images and this utter horses**t is cheaper," one fan wrote on Reddit.
"Normalising this shit is so f***ed up and dangerous in the long run. We really can’t trust corporations," another fan wrote.
"This is f***ing weird. Stop it WTA," one fan implored WTA to do better.
"The WTA has always been rubbish at media and anything to do with marketing," another claimed.
Another fan, meanwhile, maintained that WTA snubbing actual photographers' pictures for AI was "embarrassing".
"What’s weird is they do employ photographers. Using AI for this really basic photo is embarrassing. Like just pull two photos from the archives…" they wrote on Reddit.
A few others pointed out what was wrong with the image in question.
"Lol I just opened the image url on their website, it literally says ChatGPT image," one fan wrote.
"You also don't have three fingers and a thumb, unless you're a cartoon character," another suggested while referencing how Iga Swiatek looked like in the image.
"That's not how you spell Tecnifibre," one fan wrote, alluding to the Pole's racket.
Iga Swiatek looking to defend 2024 Madrid Open crown
Iga Swiatek will be eager to win her first title since last year's French Open in Madrid this fortnight. The five-time Major winner has exited before the final of every singles tournament that she has entered on the WTA Tour this year. The 23-year-old's most recent loss came in the quarterfinals of the Stuttgart Open to eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko.
Swiatek enjoyed a great claycourt season last year, having reached the semifinal in Stuttgart before winning both of the WTA 1000 tournaments in the lead-up to Roland Garros. Her Madrid Open triumph, in particular, was thrilling as she saved three championship points to take down archrival Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(7) in just over three hours.
