Strong start for streaking Swiatek at Wimbledon

Iga Swiatek spent much of the last three weeks recovering from a demanding slog through the European clay that saw her march to her fifth major title and solidify – without any doubt – her spot atop the WTA rankings.

In an ideal world the Polish juggernaut would have liked to play a warmup tournament on the grass, where she had just 19 matches to her name prior today, but the grind of the tour is never ideal.

Thankfully, Swiatek is getting better at improvising as she ages, and on Tuesday the 23-year-old showed why she is more of a contender for the Wimbledon title than ever before with a steady, stable serving performance that kept Sofia Kenin on the back foot.

In pole position from wire-to-wire, the Pole earned a 6-3, 6-4 win in a battle of former Slam champions.

Serve for success

Swiatek has often spoken of her improved serve in 2024, and on grass she sees it as a key to opening up her game. Against Kenin it was in effect, as the Pole hit speeds of 5 MPH faster than she did last year (according to ESPN) and won 26 of 31 first-serve points to keep command over the run of play against the American.

Swiatek also hit six aces and won 15 of 26 of her service points to improve to 3-0 lifetime against Kenin and 10-4 lifetime at Wimbledon.

“It was a solid start and not an easy draw,” Swiatek told the crowd on No.1 Court. “There’s no time to kind of get into the tournament slowly, you need to be ready straightaway, and I’m happy that I did that today.”

20 and counting…

By winning on Tuesday Swiatek stretched her current winning streak, which started with her title run on the clay in Madrid, then continued through Rome and Roland-Garros, to 20 victories.

She is one of two active players to have managed multiple win streaks of 20 or more, along with Venus Williams, and one of just nine players in Open Era history to have achieved multiple win streaks of 20 or more at 24 years of age or younger, along with Justine Henin, Yvonne Goolagong, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Venus and Serena Williams.

Swiatek will face either Francesca Jones or Petra Martic in the second round.

Accept the challenge

Asked if she is feeling more comfortable with each passing year on the grass Swiatek, whose best performance was a quarter-final run last year at Wimbledon, hinted that she would know more only if she could get through the first rounds.

“When you switch to any surface, first couple of matches are not going to be comfortable and you have to accept that,” she said. “But looking at how I’m playing on practice court, I feel like I’m doing progress every year, and every year is a little bit faster for me, the process of adapting to the surface.

“So yeah, you can say I feel more comfortable. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s going to be tough on this court anyway because it’s a Grand Slam and you have to be ready.”

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