Iga Swiatek opens Australian Open campaign with dominant win

Playing her first match on Rod Laver Arena, British qualifier Harriet Dart started brightly against No.7 seed Iga Swiatek by winning three of the first four games.

From 3-1 down, though, Swiatek rolled. She won the last 11 games in a 6-3, 6-0 victory to win her opening match Down Under for the fourth year in a row.

Tale of the tape: Swiatek made nine of her 17 unforced errors for the match in the first four games, and finished with 21 winners. After the slow start, she also rounded into form on serve. In her last six service games, Swiatek lost just six points. Three of those came in the last game, as she served out the match from 15-40 down.

Swedish No.1 next for Swiatek: With a spot in the third round at stake, Swiatek will face Sweden's Rebecca Peterson, who was a 6-2, 6-3 winner against wildcard Daria Saville (neé Gavrilova). The two will play at a major for the second time in the span of a year, with Siwatek winning 6-1, 6-1 in the same round at Roland Garros last summer.

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Iga Swiatek on Australian Open, being a teenage Grand Slam champion & handling expectation

Poland's Iga Swiatek, who shot to fame by winning the 2020 French Open title as a 19-year-old, is the latest WTA Tour star to feature in a BBC Sport column.


In her first piece at the Australian Open, the seventh seed discusses coping with the attention of being such a young major champion and dealing with her own expectations.


Coming into last year's Australian Open, I was less confident than I am now. Even though I had won a Grand Slam, I felt I had to prove it wasn't just the two weeks at the French Open when I played well.

After Roland Garros, I felt my whole world had turned upside down. The first few months were really hard in balancing my tennis work and off-court responsibilities.


had a lot of media attention - in Poland particularly but also abroad - and it was the first time I had signed a big partnership with a sponsor.


I remember coming to Australia - that was the first Grand Slam after I won in Paris - and being in a different time zone to Poland meant I could switch my phone off completely. It was really cool for me and gave me a lot of peaceful time.


But, leading up to the Australian Open, I was still really nervous for a week and my performance wasn't as good as at the French Open.


Right now, a year on and going into the 2022 Australian Open, I'm in my calm mood. I'm going to chill and see what's going to come.


After winning a Grand Slam you might think 'I can now be happy for the rest of my life' but it is totally the opposite to that. I wasn't aware it would be like that.


I expected a lot from myself and wanted to show people that I could play like that all of the time. It was kind of impossible.


So I needed some time to chill out a little bit. I had to just remember 'I'm 20 and still have lots of time to develop and to learn'.


Winning a Grand Slam is great but I think at my age it interrupted the peaceful process of growing up and developing my game.


Suddenly we had to rush to get to the same level, mentally and tennis-wise, to where my expectations were.

The period of the season where we play Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Olympics was the hardest one for me last year.


I did everything to be ready to defend my French Open title and I played solid tennis. But I felt people were expecting me to do more than reach the quarter-finals.


If I reached the quarter-finals in 2020 I would have been very happy. So I had to constantly remind myself that I don't have to win every match.

I could easily cut out all the things I read or heard from other people - but my expectations were the worst.

My psychologist Daria Abramowicz gave me a lot in terms of helping me understand myself more and understand why I am such a perfectionist.


There are examples of that in my everyday life, too. For example, I can't bake and I'm terrible at cooking yet I try to change every recipe so it is more healthy, with less sugar and less flour.


I start normally, adding the ingredients, but then think there is too much sugar or too much butter. So I take it out and then it comes out terribly.

My dad doesn't like to waste food but if I bake something like a brownie he just throws it out because it is really bad!

That's what a perfectionist does. Sometimes we change the things that should be much easier. Last year on the court I had a lot of ups and downs in terms of that.


As soon as I was playing with low expectations and high standards I played really well. Then after a really great two weeks my expectations went up again, so it was like a circle.


I need to keep my expectations level. This year I think it will be easier for me to do that because I understand the whole process better.

Last year, I won the Adelaide title after the Australian Open and then another title in Rome. I ended the season in the world's top 10 and qualified for the WTA Finals.

It really showed me that I belonged at the top of the WTA and hopefully I am going to stay there for a longer time to come. But, first of all, I needed to prove that to myself.

Working with Daria has helped me a lot and I'm not the same perfectionist I was a few years ago.

The whole of last season showed me that being in a constant rush to get ranking points and maintain your ranking doesn't make sense because there will always be something to be unhappy about.

If you are top five, you are going to be mad that you are not top three.

I need to remind myself I'm doing well. This season my expectations are to not have many expectations!


Iga Swiatek was talking to BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko at Melbourne Park.

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Iga Swiatek battles past ailing Azarenka to set up meeting with World #1 Barty in Adelaide

No.5 seed Iga Swiatek took another step toward the first title defence of her career at the Adelaide International, overcoming Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in 1 hour and 57 minutes to reach the semifinals.

Swiatek's only previous encounter with Azarenka came in the 2020 US Open third round when she was 19 years old and ranked No.53. Despite an impressive performance, Azarenka was able to advance 6-4, 6-2 en route to her fifth Grand Slam final.

Since then, the Pole has established herself firmly at the top of the game, and the bulk of their Adelaide rematch was a pulsating contest of top quality in which both sought to impose their weightiest hitting on the other.

Tactical adjustments and her signature competitive instincts enabled No.27-ranked Azarenka to become the first player to win a set from Swiatek in Adelaide. However, the 20-year-old eventually pulled away in the third set as an ailing Azarenka's movement became visibly hampered, and maintains her eight-match winning streak in the South Australian capital.

Azarenka would later withdraw from her doubles semifinal with a right leg injury, handing No.3 seeds Darija Jurak Schreiber and Andreja Klepac a walkover into the final.

By the numbers: Azarenka posted 22 winners to 26 unforced errors in total, but 10 of the former and just four of the latter came in a clean, focused second set in which she seized momentum from Swiatek. Advancing to net at every opportunity, the Belarusian's overhead was in fine fettle, and her famed return was at its best as she broke Swiatek for the set with a quartet of booming responses.

Swiatek tallied 27 winners to 28 unforced errors, and particularly notable was her balanced game. The World No.9's heavy forehand is the stroke with which she usually dominates, and it was in electrifying shape at the start of the match. However, Swiatek finished the match with 17 backhand winners to 10 from the forehand, with a series of sharply angled passes off the former wing drawing gasps.

First-serve percentage proved crucial in the first two sets: Swiatek's fell from 67% to 50% while Azarenka's rose from 53% to 68%. In the decider, Swiatek's numbers recovered to 68% while Azarenka, who was visibly limping as she fell behind 4-0, fell back to 53%.

In Swiatek's words: "Winning against such an experienced player is still pretty new for me," she said after the match. "That was my third match where I actually could show what I practiced during pre-season. That's really satisfying because I had this problem last year where I was practicing really great and I felt like I could do more on matches. This time it's different. It's actually going my way, so I'm pretty happy about that.

"Basically my main tactic was the same as in previous match: I want to be the first one to attack and to play that faster ball that's going to give me opportunity to go forward. Basically I did that pretty well.

"But I felt like in the second set I backed out a little bit, so that was my mistake. She used that. I knew she's going to do that. Basically I felt the same way when I was playing Simona last year Australian Open. She just used every opportunity to come back to the match."

"I knew in third set I need to start the same way the first set. I think it was pretty easy, just a matter of who is going to attack first and who is going to have more time to go forward."

What's next for Swiatek: A popcorn clash between the 2019 and 2020 Roland Garros champions looms in the last four as Swiatek takes on No.1 seed Ashleigh Barty. Like the Azarenka contest, it is another rematch for Swiatek against a major champion who triumphed in their only prior meeting. The Australian defeated Swiatek 7-5, 6-4 in the third round of Rome last year.

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Another great win for Iga, could have won it in straights if it were not for the poor serve percentage in the 2nd set. 

But I'm not complaining. We've got a fantastic popcorn match with Ash Barty not a bad way to start off the new season. 

I want her to win this one so bad, but the realist in me knows it'll be very tough. Although having watched Barty's first 2 matches I would say she's not quite at top form yet (in that sense Swiatek has been a lot more impressive), so if you're going to try to beat her now might be just the time to do so. 

Good luck Iga. Rooting for you. Jazda!

Iga Swiatek passes Fernandez test with flying colours in Adelaide

Iga Swiatek rose to the occasion in more ways than one in a second-round victory over Leylah Fernandez on Thursday at the Adelaide International 1.

Losing just three games in a 6-1, 6-2 victory, the No.5 seed and defending champion extended her winning streak at the event to seven matches

After the match, Swiatek revealed that the first-ever meeting with Fernandez was not the only thing weighing on her mind, telling Barbara Schett-Eagle in her on-court interview: "I was in the mood, and that was great because I was pretty stressed since ... I was playing against a younger girl, which is pretty new for me. She's pretty talented and she's a Grand Slam finalist, so I knew it was going to be tricky."

From 1-1 in the first set—two games that stretched past deuce—Swiatek largely cruised: she hit 17 winners to just eight unforced errors, and never faced a break point in 74 minutes.

"I felt really confident," Swiatek added, "and I'm pretty happy that I could finish it really quickly and I didn't let go of focus."

She needed that focus down the stretch, as it took five match points to put Fernandez away. The Canadian saved three in her last service game, putting another hold on the board from 0-40 at 6-1, 5-1.

A streak of straight sets: Swiatek didn't lose a set in Adelaide last year en route to winning her second career title, and her sets won streak at the event has now reached 14.

Give her a (left) hand: With the win, Swiatek also improved to 14-3 against left-handers at pro level. She's won her last six matches against southpaws dating back to a 2020 loss to Arantxa Rus in Rome, just prior to her breakthrough victory at Roland Garros.

"I've never had a problem [playing against left-handers]," Swiatek said. "I had a few opponents who were lefties when I was younger, so I guess on every level I've had chances to play against lefties and I don't mind it, really."

A right-hander awaits Swiatek next, as she'll face either Aussie wildcard Priscilla Hon or former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka.

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Changing coaches is turning out to be just the right move for Iga, she seems to have regained the confidence and aggressiveness that helped her win Roland Garros in 2020. 

Today she played a match that was utter perfection and it was an absolute pleasure to watch. Leylah Fernandez is no slouch after all (having reached last year's U.S. Open final), but the level that Iga displayed today would have been too good even for the likes of people like Ash Barty. 

It'll be interesting to see how she does against Azarenka in a few days, that one could be the real test of the tournament. And if she were to get past her we would finally have a first meting with the number 1 player in the world Ash Barty.

I'm shaking with excitement just thinking about it. Honestly if she plays like today she'll be tough for anyone to stop.

 Jazda Iga!. 

With Poland into the semi finals of  ATP Cup courtesy of Hubert Hurkacz the new season is shaping up great. 

Iga Swiatek notches first win of 2022 in Adelaide

Defending champion Iga Swiatek got her 2022 season off to a flying start Tuesday with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over homeland hope Daria Saville in the first round of the Adelaide International 1.

Swiatek, the World No.9 from Poland, needed 79 minutes to dispatch the former Top 20 player Saville (née Gavrilova), who was playing her first event after her off-season marriage to ATP pro Luke Saville.

Fast facts: Saville missed almost all of last year due to an Achilles injury but has a long list of top-tier victories in her history, with 11 Top 10 wins to her credit. However, the Aussie qualifier was unable to add a win over Swiatek to her ledger in their first meeting.

Swiatek, at age 20 the youngest player in the Top 10, won this title last year without dropping a set. That was her first hard-court title and second title overall, following the 2020 Roland Garros championship (which she also won without dropping a set). Swiatek is now 11-0 in Tale of the match: Swiatek fell behind an early break at 2-1 in the opening set, but the No.5 seed won five of the next six games to recover her bearings and take the one-set lead.

It was even easier for Swiatek in the second set, where she never faced a break point. The Pole finished up the match with a 76 percent success rate returning the Saville second serve, which likely pressured the Aussie into double faults on the last two points of the clash.

"I just focused on my game and being on court," Swiatek said in her post-match press conference. "I wanted to implement some stuff that I practiced here. It went out pretty well, so I'm pretty happy. It was solid match, so it's a good start."

Next up: Another skyrocketing youngster awaits Swiatek in the second round. Canadian teen Leylah Fernandez will be Swiatek’s next opponent, after Fernandez charged past Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday.

This will be the first professional meeting between the two, though they met once in juniors, with Swiatek taking a straight-sets win in 2015. Both would go on to win junior Grand Slam singles titles: Swiatek at 2018 Wimbledon, and Fernandez at 2019 Roland Garros.

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Great way to start off a new year. Iga clearly feels very comfortable in Adelaide and it's freeing up her game.

Iga Swiatek aims to solve Sakkari puzzle in WTA finals

On the second day of the Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara, Group Chichén Itzá's opening matches reprise some of this season's key contests. Will the narratives set earlier in 2021 be underlined - or switched around?

Named after the ancient Mayan city on the Yucatán Peninsula, Group Chichén Itzá features four players who have taken control of their own storylines in 2021. Aryna Sabalenka attained the consistency that had eluded her in the past, and enjoyed long-awaited Grand Slam breakthroughs. Iga Swiatek acquired the authority of a top player after her stunning Roland Garros title run in 2020. Maria Sakkari levelled up to reach two major semifinals. And Paula Badosa broke through on clay - then did it again on hardcourts.

[4] Maria Sakkari (GRE) vs. [5] Iga Swiatek (POL)

Among Sakkari's many notable accomplishments in 2021 is her proficiency in snapping streaks. In the Miami quarterfinals, she ended Naomi Osaka's 13-month, 23-match winning streak in breathtaking fashion, 6-0, 6-4. In the US Open fourth round, she inflicted Bianca Andreescu's first US Open main draw loss in 11 matches, triumphing 6-7(2), 7-6(6), 6-3 in a three-and-a-half-hour late-night marathon.

And in between, she ended Swiatek's Roland Garros title defence, ending the Pole's 11-match, 22-set Parisian streaks in the quarterfinals 6-4, 6-4. Three months later, Swiatek had still not solved Sakkari, whose 6-4, 7-5 victory in Ostrava snapped her own nine-match losing streak in WTA semifinals.

Those matches encapsulated both Sakkari's existing strengths, and what she has added to transform her game this season. The Greek's fitness has never been in question, but from her first tournament of 2021 in Abu Dhabi, it was clear Sakkari was now in possession of a newly formidable serve and a commitment to a revamped, aggressive game.

With two titles and second-week showings at all the Grand Slams, Swiatek's first season after becoming a major champion contained few disappointments. The 20-year-old has proved to be a quick problem-solver, both within matches and when it comes to the demands of the tour - though she says herself that there's still some way to go.

"I played some tournaments I've never been to," she told press. "Being seeded there was pretty weird. ... I would say the most tricky thing was learning how to play with the higher ranking because usually I was an underdog. I still feel like I didn't figure it out completely."

The challenge of Sakkari has thus far eluded her, and rectifying that will be high on Swiatek's list of priorities. Her ability to bring something different to the matchup will be key.

A third victory over Swiatek for Sakkari would send a message that her presence at the WTA Finals isn't just because she's an upset artist, but because she belongs at the table herself.

An advantage for Swiatek could be her preparation. Following Indian Wells, she remained in the United States to practice - and did so at altitude after doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands invited her to Phoenix.

But it was Sakkari who summed up what could be a crucial attitude to the Guadalajara conditions in her pre-tournament press conference.

In a flashback to her days as a baseline grinder who relied on her fighting spirit, rather than her big serve and forehand, to win, she told press: "It's just whoever accepts the most mistakes, whoever accepts playing ugly tennis this week - 'ugly', you know what I mean - will give herself a better chance on winning the tournament."

Head-to-head: 2-0 to Sakkari, both matches this year.

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Road to the WTA Finals: Swiatek strings together impressive sophomore season

Poland's Iga Swiatek embarked on her 2021 season facing uncharted territory. Just three months earlier, she stunned the tennis world with one of the most dominant runs to a major title, winning Roland Garros at just 19 years old. Instead of a sophomore slump, Swiatek enjoyed a standout season that included two titles, unmatched consistency at the Slams and a Top 10 debut that led to her qualification at the Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara.

Starting strong in Australia with first hardcourt title in Adelaide

From Day 1, Swiatek's goal for the season was to work her way toward consistency. En route to the title at Roland Garros, she did not lose a set. As a top junior, she won the girls' Wimbledon title in 2018 by winning 12 consecutive sets. Her ITF title runs were just as dominant. When Swiatek was on, she was unstoppable. Now in her first full season on the WTA Tour, she wanted consistency.

"I wanted to focus more - not more - but have the same attitude on WTA tournaments as well as Grand Slams," Swiatek said in Melbourne. "I don't know how that happens but I always play better on Grand Slams. Maybe it's preparation, maybe it's just the perfect time for me to play. My goal is to be consistent, so I want to play good at basically every tournament."

It took her just three tournaments to get her hands on a trophy. After posting her second Round of 16 appearance at the Australian Open, where she lost 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to Simona Halep, Swiatek ran the table at the Adelaide International to capture her first hardcourt title and second title overall. As she did at Roland Garros, Swiatek did not lose a set in Adelaide, dropping just 22 games in five matches.

"For sure it's good for me because I can see that I can play good tennis for the whole week. It wasn't, like, one time during the French Open," Swiatek said after defeating Belinda Bencic, 6-2, 6-2 in the Adelaide final. "It gives me more confidence that I'm a more developed player and I can play good more often. I'm really happy about that."

But back on her favored clay, Swiatek looked ready to continue the clay-court tear that she started last fall. Making her main-draw debut in Madrid, Swiatek set up her first meeting with No.1 Ashleigh Barty - a battle of the last two French Open champions - in the Round of 16, losing 7-5, 6-4.

"I was always imagining that when I'm going to win a Grand Slam, I'm going to, I don't know, just enjoy it for the rest of my life, it's going to be rainbows everywhere," Swiatek said. "I'm going to be some kind of at peace in myself that I already won a Grand Slam and I reached my goal.

"The truth is that humans aren't like that. They just want more. I still feel expectations even though I did something great at the French Open. I want more, basically."

There would be no coasting for Swiatek in Rome, where she would capture her first WTA 1000 title in memorable fashion. While her two previous title runs were clear displays of domination, Swiatek came from match point down against Barbora Krejcikova to win 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals.

After finding a way to win ugly and survive the next French Open champion, Swiatek returned to her dominating ways. After defeating Elina Svitolina and Coco Gauff in straight sets to make the final, Swiatek needed just 46 minutes to defeat Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-0 for the Rome title, becoming just the fourth teenager to win a WTA 1000 tournament. It was the first 6-0, 6-0 win in a WTA final since 2016.

With two titles under her belt, a Top 10 debut and statement run in Rome, Swiatek returned to Paris to try to defend a title for the first time in her career. Swiatek confidently worked her way through a potentially tricky first-week draw without losing a set, defeating Kaja Juvan, Rebecca Peterson, Anett Kontaveit and Marta Kostyuk to return to the quarterfinals.

Swiatek's defense would run up against Maria Sakkari, who ended the Pole's 10-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-4 win. But Swiatek counted her Parisian fortnight a success - she went on to make her first major doubles final with Bethanie Mattek-Sands - and left France on a high note.

By the end of the 2021 Slam Season, Swiatek had achieved a feat no one matched this season. After making the Round of 16 at in her main-draw debuts at both Wimbledon and the US Open, the 20-year-old became the only woman this season to make the Round of 16 or better all four majors.

At Wimbledon, Swiatek earned straight-sets wins against Hsieh Su-Wei, Vera Zvonareva and Irina-Camelia Begu before losing in three sets to Ons Jabeur. At the US Open, she tallied back-to-back three-set wins over Fiona Ferro and Anett Kontaveit before losing to Bencic in a tough 7-6(12), 6-3 rematch of the Adelaide final.

"I'm not Barty, so I'm not 100% consistent. I'm like 70% consistent," Swiatek said in New York. "I am proud. But the best kind of consistency is when you can win, like, five titles a year. So right now I'm looking at the results that Ash has. When it's comparing to that, I'm not, like, 100% consistent. But I'm glad that, comparing to other players, I'm consistent."

Swiatek went into the final weeks of the regular season with a number of significant milestones in mind. She was in good position to finish her first full WTA season by finishing inside the Top 10, where she qualified for her first WTA Finals and became the first Polish player since Agnieszka Radwanska in 2017 to rank inside the Top 5.

"After [winning] Roland Garros I really didn't know how it's gonna go," Swiatek said at Indian Wells, reflecting on her season. "I actually thought I'm not gonna be able to cope with everything as well as I did."

Swiatek secured her spot in the Top 5, at a career high No.4, after making the semifinals in Ostrava and then secured her place in Guadalajara after making the Round of 16 at Indian Wells in her main-draw debut. As she eyes her first WTA Finals appearance, Swiatek finished the regular season with a 35-13 record, making the Round of 16 or better at 11 of 14 WTA tournaments.

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