For No.7 seed Iga Swiatek, overcoming the challenge posed by the ever tricky Su-Wei Hsieh on the Wimbledon grass will be a ginormous dose of confidence to take her into the second round of The Championships.
Swiatek’s 6-4, 6-4 victory over the queen of the disguised shot from Chinese Taipei – her first win in the main draw at Wimbledon – was not just a delight to watch, but a signal of intent, as she deployed her enthralling power game to counter all that the wily Hsieh threw at her.
“Hsieh has great touch, so my main goal was not to let her use that,” Swiatek said, no doubt aware that her opponent’s best run at Wimbledon three years ago included the defeat of top seed Simona Halep.
Coming into the match, the 20-year-old Pole, who made her top 10 debut last month, was philosophical about her need to gain experience on the grass, describing the prospect of playing the two-time Wimbledon doubles champion as “hard”.
“If my game’s going to be there and if I'm going to be in a good rhythm, if I'm going to approach the ball and not be late to many of the shots, I think I can do it. We’ll see. It’s going to be tricky,” she said.
That was quite a lot of ifs to overcome, which with a businesslike pace she set out to do by sticking to her aggressive, all-court game, crouching to retrieve every low ball, racing to pick up every pesky drop shot.
With a break of serve in the opening game, she managed to counter Hsieh's impressive armoury to capitalise on that early advantage and take the first set 6-4.
Despite her inexperience on grass – this was only the ninth professional level match on the surface in her career, including Qualifying - Swiatek looked perfectly at home. Having lost in her first senior appearance in 2019, she has clearly studied how other clay court specialists such as Halep have learnt to master the grass game.
“I am so inexperienced on grass, I am always asking the coaches, is this grass different?” she said, describing the unsettling change in conditions from sunny Eastbourne to chilly Wimbledon. She makes it sound like she’s taking baby steps, but so far she seems to have impressively preserved the momentum that took her to a maiden Grand Slam victory at Roland-Garros in 2020.
There is no doubting her desire to thrive in this tournament. The audacity of Hsieh earning a break-back point in the fourth game of the first set seemed to inspire her to become more dictatorial with her serve; she only lost a further two points on serve in the opener.
In the second set, the Pole got the early break again, only to concede her own serve. Back on level terms, the intriguing match-up of styles brought stunning responses from both players.
The sun came out over the All England Club as if to highlight exchanges of wonderful tennis. The pivotal moment came when Swiatek broke again in the fifth game of the second set, and consolidated the lead with Hsieh slamming an overhead into the net.
From then on, it was not so much “if” as "when" Swiatek would celebrate her passage through to the next round.
“It’s amazing to win, and very emotional as the last match I played on this court was winning the Juniors in 2018, and I had so many good memories,” she said.
What a great win for Iga. She may not have a lot of experience on grass, but she's definitely a fast learner.
Hsieh is a tricky tricky player who is capable of taking out anyone especially early on, so the fact that Iga handled it the way she did in only her 2nd main draw Wimbledon appearance is a fantastic step forward.
I don't even remember who she's playing next, but I'm already looking forward to it. Jazda Iga!
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