World No.1 Iga Swiatek started and finished her afternoon on Centre Court in business mode, dispatching Croatian Petra Martic 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday.
Make that ‘game, set, match, Swiatek’ for a tour-leading 45th time this season. With only four defeats in 2024, the ultra-focused, perfection-seeking Pole will take some stopping at The Championships in this form.
Swiatek has now also claimed victory in her past 18 Grand Slam second-round encounters to book a last 32 battle with recent Birmingham champion Yulia Putintseva.
“For sure I’m happy. It wasn’t easy because Petra is changing the rhythm a lot, she’s playing a lot of top spin, she’s playing slice and I needed to adjust quickly,” claimed Swiatek, extending her winning streak to 21 matches.
“It’s not the first time I’ve come into this tournament with a ‘streak,’ it’s not that easy to have this baggage on your shoulders. This year feels different. I don’t feel like everyone is focusing on it. Two years ago was a lot harder when it was 30 something matches (37).
“I know I’m now playing on a different surface, that brings different challenges and I’m just focusing on them and not on the statistics.”
The dedicated ‘Swiftie’ (Taylor Swift fan, if you’ve been hiding under a rock) subtly used a track off the American superstar’s ‘1989’ album to describe her current grass court development.
“I want to get better here, on grass. I don’t feel like I need to prove anything, because it’s a totally different story. I’m just starting with a ‘blank space’ and going with it.
“I feel like I’m making progress on grass, especially on the practice court and my goal is to implement it on matches. I have really low expectations, I’m focusing on the work and the results will come after.”
Heading onto court, the top seed knew she had prevailed in all three of their previous meetings, including a 6-2, 7-5 triumph over Martic in the Wimbledon third round last summer. It was a fairly similar tale on Thursday.
Both players were pinging the ball across the net with some ferocious power.
Martic, competing in a milestone 50th major, sent out a warning signal with a forehand arrowed down the line at 2-2. Swiatek’s short, sharp response was to serve and strike consecutive forehand winners. So efficient, so clinical.
The champion instincts clicked in at 5-4, Swiatek stepped in and swatted away a catalogue of hot shot groundstrokes to steal away the opener.
Into the second set, at 2-1, the 23-year-old split stepped, struck a forehand and froze for a second to admire the mathematics. The ball landed in the crossover between the baseline and tramline. It was that kind of day.
Swiatek was turning the screw, probing for a pivotal breakthrough, but Martic was doing a stellar job of holding until 4-3. Three passing shots in the game exemplified Swiatek’s growing confidence on the surface. Passing Martic, passing the test, Swiatek was soon saluting the Wimbledon crowd once again.
18 - Iga Swiatek has made the R32 for the 18th consecutive Women’s Singles Grand Slam: in the Open Era, only Martina Navratilova (35), Conchita Martinez (30), Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (25) and Steffi Graf (19) had more in a row. Law.
21 - Iga Swiatek has become the first player to win more than 20 consecutive matches as World No. 1 since Serena Williams between the WTA Finals 2014 and Madrid 2015. Reigning.
Honestly can't say I'm a fan of Putinseva, I tend to avoid her matches because I find her extremely annoying.
Her making fan of Iga as she served in one of their recent meetings on hard court didn't help change my mind on that.
Her game is unpredictable as her personality, dropshots slices changes of rhythm. Iga will definitely have her work cut out, but if she keeps her cool I believe she can come through it (even with Putinseva winning a recent title on grass).
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