After an early exit at her favorite Slam last month, Swiatek rebounded on her worst surface to take the Wimbledon title.
— Just hours after winning her fourth title at the French Open last June, Iga Swiatek was asked by a reporter about the upcoming grass season.
With the start of Wimbledon just weeks away, there were only a few opportunities to play in warmup events on the surface. Swiatek didn’t seem concerned.
«If I would lose here earlier, maybe I would be able to play two more weeks on grass and then be a better grass player», Swiatek said matter-of-factly. «But if I had to choose, I love playing on clay, so I’m not going to give up that ever.»
Swiatek then opted to skip all of the grass tournaments to focus on rest and recovery after the long clay season. She lost in the third round at the All England Club.
But this year, Swiatek did lose earlier at her beloved Roland Garros. She was upset by world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals, ending her dream for a fourth consecutive title at the major. Swiatek — albeit involuntarily — did have more time to prepare for the grass.
Her words from a year ago turned out to be right: The additional weeks on the surface helped her become a better grass player. But even she likely couldn’t have predicted just how good, and just how dominant, she would become. Or how she would thrive without the overwhelming attention and pressure that she faced at the French Open.
And she certainly couldn’t have guessed that she would be the 2025 Wimbledon champion. But that’s exactly what happened Saturday, following an impressive fortnight and a staggering 6-0, 6-0 victory in the final to win in less than an hour over No. 13 seed Amanda Anisimova.
«Honestly, I didn’t even dream [of this] because for me it was just way too far», Swiatek said on court just moments after securing the title. «I feel like I’m already an experienced player, after winning Slams before, but I never really expected this one.»
Swiatek, 24, has now won six Grand Slam titles, and becomes just the eighth woman, and the only active WTA player, to win major titles on all three surfaces. She’s also the youngest to do so since Martina Hingis in 2003. She’s as surprised as anyone that she was able to do it.
IRONICALLY, SWIATEK’S HIGH POINT as a junior was at Wimbledon, when she won the girls’ singles title in 2018.
It was her only Slam title as a junior, and she had been all but untouchable during her run. But even the brief recap on the Wimbledon website after her 6-4, 6-2 triumph in the final stated that «clay remains her preferred surface.»
Sure enough, the clay was where Swiatek initially found the most success as a professional. She reached her first WTA final on the surface and then, as an unseeded 19-year-old and a relative unknown, stunned the tennis world by claiming the title at the pandemic-delayed 2020 French Open.
While many were unfamiliar with Swiatek and her game before the tournament, she made quite the impression during her run.
«The way she’s playing right now, it would be hard to imagine she wouldn’t win half a dozen majors», seven-time major champion and tennis analyst John McEnroe said after her victory. «It’s incredible.»
The clay remained her bread-and-butter, but she also emerged as a strong hard-court player as well. She won her first title on the surface in Adelaide, a 500-level event, just months after her breakthrough in Paris. She recorded a historic 37-match winning streak in the spring of 2022 — which included the titles at Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and the French Open — and clinched the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in April of that year, following the unexpected retirement of Ashleigh Barty. Her winning streak was stopped in the third round of Wimbledon, but she won the US Open by year’s end.
Swiatek held the top ranking for 75 weeks. After failing to defend her US Open title in 2023, she fell to No. 2 briefly, and Sabalenka took No. 1, but she reclaimed it just eight weeks later. The 2024 season was looking to be equally dominant for Swiatek, as she won four of the year’s first six 1000-level titles and then was victorious again at the French Open.
«She’s No. 1. I would say she’s really good in every asset of the game», Sabalenka said after losing to her in the Italian Open final last year.
But after hoisting her fifth major trophy, and fourth at Roland Garros, Swiatek struggled, by her standards anyway. The clear favorite for the 2024 Olympics (held at Roland Garros), Swiatek walked away with the bronze after being upset in the semifinals. She then fell in the quarterfinals at the US Open. She parted ways with her longtime coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and began working with Wim Fissette soon after.
