Iga Swiatek makes triumphant return to hard courts in Toronto

World No.1 Iga Swiatek's picked up where she left off on hard courts. Playing her first match on the surface in four months on Wednesday, Swiatek was a 6-1, 6-2 winner against Ajla Tomljanovic in the second round of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.

Here are three takeaways from the World No. 1's first hard-court win since April:

A winning return to the surface: Swiatek's last match on hard courts was more than 100 days ago, in Billie Jean King Cup play on April 16. She went 2-0 representing Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers against Romania, capping an unbeaten spring on the surface in which she also won titles in Doha, Indian Wells and Miami.

Her win against Tomljanovic is her 19th straight on hard courts this season. Despite losing serve twice in the second set of 64-minute match, she broke Tomljanovic's serve six times overall. Swiatek won the first five games of the match and also the last four, and hit 16 winners to Tomljanovic's two.

"I'm pretty happy that I could actually just play my game. It was the first match so it's never easy," Swiatek said. "But I feel like I found my rhythm and it was a pretty solid performance.

"From the first practice I played here I felt really good. And even though there was jet lag and I was coming back from clay I felt like I was in a good place."

A brief history in Canada: This is just Swiatek's second main draw played in Canada. In her 2019 debut, as a teenage qualifier, she reached the third round before losing to then-No.2 seed Naomi Osaka.

That week, she also beat Tomljanovic (who retired in Round 1 at 4-1 down) and former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. It's a run that Swiatek says she remembers fondly.

"Both of the matches that I played here in main draw against Caroline Wozniacki and against Naomi was like a breakthrough for me," Swiatek said.

"I remember I got injured after US Open, and I just watched highlights of these matches for couple of months to kind of remind myself that I was going the right path and that I'm improving.

"It really gave me extra motivation. Because even though I lost this match against Naomi I remember I was just happy that I could play such a tight match against her. She was World No. 1 back then so it was a big deal for me for sure."

A lefty up next: Swiatek was assured of facing a left-hander in Round 3, regardless of who won the match between No.13 seed and home favorite Leylah Fernandez, or Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia. After an opening set that lasted more than an hour, Haddad Maia was victorious, 7-6(4), 6-1. It's her fourth Top 20 win of the season.

"Iga, I think she's been doing the best year that she could do," Haddad Maia said. "I will try to play the same: improve myself, improve my game. try to play what I've been doing in the last couple of weeks, and enjoy the moment as well."

wtatennis.com