Iga Swiatek reaches career first Wimbledon quarterfinal saving 2 match points!

World No.1 Iga Swiatek saved two match points to defeat No.14 Belinda Bencic 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3 to advance to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal. The victory is Swiatek's 14th consecutive win and booked her a place in her ninth straight quarterfinal. The 21-year-old Pole is the youngest player to make the quarterfinals at all four majors since Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Swiatek will face Ukraine's Elina Svitolina for a spot in the semifinals. Svitolina endured her own dramatic victory, defeating former No.1 Victoria Azarenka in a deciding tiebreak. Swiatek won their only previous match, a straight-sets win on the clay at 2021 Rome.

Swiatek held a 2-1 edge in the head-to-head record against Bencic, but the Swiss Olympic champion has consistently played her close, including an intense 6-3, 7-6(3) contest at the United Cup in January. Two of their three previous matches were decided by a pivotal tiebreak set.

In their first match on grass, the trend proved true once again.

How Bencic put Swiatek on the ropes: Through her first three matches at Wimbledon, Swiatek broke serve in 64 percent of her return games. She looked well on her way to maintaining that stat against Bencic early. Two double faults from Bencic in her first service game gave Swiatek three break points at 0-40, but Bencic saved all three to get on the board.

Bencic's grit was tested once again late in the set. Having already saved one set point and facing a second at 4-5, 30-40, Bencic won the biggest point of the match, setting Swiatek up with a perfectly struck drop shot and passing her down the line to save her 19th consecutive break point. She held to 5-5 and forced the tiebreak by closing out her 24th consecutive hold of serve. She had not been broken since the second round.

With confident ball-striking, Bencic raced to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak before closing it out on her fourth set point to hand Swiatek her loss of a set at this year's Championships.

"Usually I'm using my chances," Swiatek said. "I had six break points. I felt like I'm more solid. I still lost the set.

"I didn't want to focus on that in the second and third. It stayed in my head a little bit. I felt like I should have been the one that won that set, but it doesn't work like that. I thought there's no sense to kind of think about that. I just wanted to go forward and have no regrets."

Swiatek responded immediately, breaking Bencic with a clean forehand return winner in the opening game of the second set, but Bencic kept the pressure on, breaking back to 3-all. After Bencic held to 6-5 on a netted forehand return from the World No.1, Swiatek found herself serving to stay in the Championships.

Swiatek turns the tables: Facing two match points at 15-40, Swiatek showed her champion's mettle. She saved both points with winners from both wings, holding serve to force another tiebreak after over two hours of play.

"I made two good returns, and of course I tried to make her play," Bencic said, when asked if she would play her match points differently. "She came up with a great shot. That's well done from her. I would do the same thing again.

Having kept herself in the match, Swiatek raced away with the tiebreak to take the high-quality affair into a third.

Two early break points decided the third set. Bencic earned the first chance, with Swiatek serving at 1-1, but could not convert. Swiatek converted her first chance a game later, breaking to 3-1 after Bencic struck her 10th double fault of the match. Bencic did not see another break-point chance.

Swiatek protected her lead and closed out the win with her 33rd winner after 3 hours and 3 minutes.


Key match stats: Swiatek was broken just once in the match, saving three of four break points. After seeing six break points come and go in the first set, Swiatek was two for three on break points for the remainder of the match.

While Swiatek hit nine more winners than unforced errors, Bencic hit 30 winners to 33 unforced errors. Of those 33 unforced errors, 10 were double faults.

No regrets from Bencic: "I think it was an incredible match," Bencic said. "Of course, she's No. 1 in the world so she's not going to give me the match just like that, but still, I think I threw everything I could at her and I pushed her to the limit.

"In that case, I'm super proud of how it went from my side."

Swiatek takes another step forward on grass: "For sure this match is going to give me more belief," Swiatek said. "I'm happy that it was really tight and I could still play my game.

"Belinda is a really, really great player. She likes playing on grass. She has this game style that helps her a little bit on grass. It wasn't an easy match for sure today. You saw that. I'm just happy that I won it 'cause it feels I'm going the right direction."

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 I don't even know how to begin describing this one. It's been several hours and I'm still processing the emotions and shock of it all. 

I knew going into this match that Belinda Bencic would be Iga's toughest test of the tournament. 

But I didn't think Belinda would get so close as to have Iga come back literally from the brink of defeat. And I thought this year's Roland Garros final was stressful, that had nothing on this! 

I'm certain my blood pressure sky rocketed from the stress about a 100 times during this match. 

The fact that Iga regrouped and won that 2nd set after losing the first having 6 breakpoint chances then losing a very close tiebreak; then losing the lead in the 2nd set and winning that final set tiebreak is testament to her incredible mental resilience this season. 

The Iga of last year, or even earlier this year would have lost this match in straights. But the Iga of 2023 is really showing everyone why she has been the #1 player in the world for the past 60+ weeks. 

What makes it even more impressive is that she did this on grass a surface on which she has the least amount of experience and is the least comfortable on. 

Iga will next play Elina Svitolina who herself had the match of the tournament beating Azarenka in a final set super tiebreak. Svitolina is someone I have always liked, but wouldn't say followed all her matches or career all that closely over the years. 

What she's doing now, having had a child in October returning to the tour in April of this year and reaching back to back quarterfinals of a Grand Slam is nothing short of astounding. 

And given everything that's going on in her home country of Ukraine I have nothing but admiration and respect for her as a person and player. 

She has really become the player to follow in every event she enters at the moment. Hearing her speak and watching her play is pure inspiration. 

So the fact that Iga and Elina will now have to play each other for the semis makes me so conflicted and sad. 

I don't want either one of their stories to end just yet at this year's Wimbledon. 

It's going to be not only incredibly emotional and stressful, but absolutely gut-wrenching for whoever comes out the winner on Tuesday (ok part of that may be me projecting my own feeling because I want Iga to keep going so badly), but it all still applies. 

Personally I'm hoping for a little less drama than the 4th round match. 

As thrilling as it was to watch, I'm not sure my nerves will be able to take it!.

Jazda Iga!  

Iga Swiatek matches best Wimbledon result reaches round of 16

World No.1 Iga Swiatek advanced to the Round of 16 at Wimbledon for the second time in her career, defeating 30th-seed Petra Martic 6-2, 7-5 in the third round.

With straight-set wins over Martic, Sara Sorribes Tormo, and Zhu Lin, Swiatek has lost 13 games through the first week at Wimbledon. The four-time major champion is bidding to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time.

On Sunday, Swiatek will face No.14 seed Belinda Bencic for a spot in the quarterfinals. The match pits two Wimbledon junior champions against each other. Bencic won the girls' title 10 years ago in 2013. Swiatek won it five years ago in 2018.

The Swiss advanced to the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette. Bencic owns a phenomenal 4-3 record against reigning World No.1s, with three wins over Naomi Osaka and one over Serena Williams.

"I'm really up for the challenge," Bencic said. "I'm excited to play her. I think I'm a player that I play well against top players."

Swiatek has won two of the three previous meetings, but their sets have been highly competitive. In January, Swiatek beat the Olympic champion at the United Cup 6-3, 7-6(3). At the 2021 US Open, Bencic came through a 26-point tiebreak in the first set to win 7-6(12), 6-3. This will be their first meeting on grass.

When asked what impressed her most about Swiatek's game, Bencic pointed to the Pole's speed.

"I think it's her movement, absolutely," she said. "I think no one has ever moved like that in the woman's game like her."

Swiatek's win over Martic is her 13th consecutive victory, a streak that began with her title run at Roland Garros last month. Since losing her first set on grass this season to Tatjana Maria at Bad Homburg, Swiatek has now won 12 consecutive sets.

"I do feel more relaxed," Swiatek said. "I think also because I won Roland Garros and I feel like after that, the pressure is a little bit off because I reached my goal kind of for the season. I don't have to think about anything else other than playing."

Swiatek improved to 3-0 against Martic, but this was the most competitive of their three duels. Martic generated more break-point chances in the first set than Swiatek, but the World No.1 was more clinical. Behind 12 winners to eight unforced errors, Swiatek converted all three of her break point chances, while Martic broke just once from four chances.

Swiatek looked poised to close out the straight-forward win but was broken at love as she served at 5-4 in the second set. Martic came within a point of consolidating her break-back at 5-5, 40-0. She thought she served an ace to close the game but a Swiatek challenge showed the ball was long. Swiatek ran off the next five points to break Martic and served out the win after 1 hour and 43 minutes.

Swiatek finished the match with 30 winners to 22 unforced errors. Martic hit 14 winners to 22 unforced errors. Through her first three matches of the tournament, Swiatek has broken her opponents' serve 64% of the time.

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Iga Swiatek notches 40th win of the season with another win at Wimbledon

 

World No.1 Iga Swiatek of Poland clinched a spot in the third round of Wimbledon for the third straight season with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo on Wednesday.

"I was able to kind of do everything tactically as I wanted to, as my coach wanted me to do, on first and second round," Swiatek said in her post-match press conference. "I feel confident. I'm going to try to kind of keep it going."

Here are some more key figures from Swiatek's latest victory:

12: Swiatek has won her last 12 contested matches after adding two victories already this week. She picked up her fourth career Grand Slam singles title at Roland Garros last month, then grabbed three more wins at Bad Homburg before illness forced her to withdraw from last week's semifinals.

27: On Wednesday, Swiatek was the more aggressive of the two, as she used her fiery groundstrokes to successfully rally past Sorribes Tormo's world-class footspeed and defense. Swiatek fired 27 winners in the match, compared to the Spaniard's three.

"It's never easy to play against Sara because she runs to everything, she's always kind of resetting the rally," Swiatek said. "But I wanted to be patient. I really used my power today."

83: The World No.1 was also mostly untroubled on serve, winning 83 percent of points when she got her first serve in play. Swiatek dropped her serve while leading 2-0, but she never faced another break point after that early stumble.

20 - Iga Swiatek is the youngest player to win 20 sets in Grand Slam tournaments with a 6-0 scoreline since Maria Sharapova in 2008. Closeout.

87: Swiatek was even more dominant returning the Sorribes Tormo second serve, where she won 87 percent of points (14 of 16). Swiatek also converted five of her eight break points and won the last eight games of the match uninterrupted.

"I always try to play every ball the same way no matter what the score is," Swiatek said. "At the end, yeah, it's pretty fun to enjoy the stats. On court I'm just mostly focused on playing the same game, even [if I'm] leading."

2: Swiatek is now a win away from making it into the second week of Wimbledon for only the second time, following her Round of 16 showing in 2021. Wimbledon is the only major where Swiatek has yet to reach the quarterfinals or semifinals.

In the third round, Swiatek will face either Diane Parry of France or No.30 seed Petra Martic of Croatia.

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Today I think Iga hit almost every shot in the book (minus a volley). The variety was pure fun. 

And she really had to work for it Sorribes Tormo made her hit a lot of extra shots to finish the points, and she managed it wonderfully. 

Will she face yet another French woman in Wimbledon 3rd round?. 

Looking forward to Friday already.

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek continues winning on grass with Wimbledon opener

Wimbledon, England -- Iga Swiatek was up 4-0 when, suddenly, inexplicably, she was down. Just beyond the baseline, her feet got sideways and Swiatek slipped, executing an almost perfect faceplant.

The Court No.1 crowd gasped, but she gingerly pushed herself up to the prone position, drawing relieved applause. It was more embarrassing than dangerous. To be fair, this was the first match of the fortnight, when the grass is at its juiciest. You could actually see a few dark gashes, skid marks, where the players’ feet dug in particularly hard.

Ultimately, Swiatek found her footing and advanced Monday to the second round with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Zhu Lin. On Wednesday, Swiatek will face Sara Sorribes Tormo.

Swiatek hit 22 winners, more than three times as many as Zhu, and saved three of four break points.

A three-time champion on the red clay at Roland Garros, Swiatek is undeniably the best on clay among Hologic WTA Tour players. When she reached the semifinals in Melbourne in 2022 and followed that up with the US Open title last summer, she checked the hard-court box. Similar success on grass, although it’s a relatively small sample, has been elusive.

To date, her best effort at the All England Club is the fourth round in 2021. This is the only major in which she’s failed to reach the quarterfinals. Swiatek’s now 10-5 for her career on grass, a winning percentage (66.7) that is far lower than on clay (87.5) or hard court (74.6).

“Grass court season is so short, it always becomes a priority kind of before the grass court season,” Swiatek said Saturday. “Throughout the whole year, I’m not really thinking about that.

“For sure, deeply, I believe the best players, they can play on all surfaces. I want to become that kind of player who can play well on grass as well and feel comfortable there. I’m doing my best to just work on my skills.”

The funny thing? Her only Grand Slam title as a junior came on the lawns at Wimbledon. Unseeded, Swiatek defeated Leonie Kung in straight sets. In 2021, she fell to Ons Jabeur in the fourth round here, and last year, after winning in Paris, she lost in the third round to Alize Cornet.

“Last year, I felt a lot of pressure here because I was No.1,” Swiatek said. “That was the first year where I could just focus on practicing, actually learning a lot. So hopefully I’m going to be able to use that in my matches. For sure, getting used to the grass was always a tricky part because when you play well on Roland Garros, then you have less time to prepare for Wimbledon.”

After winning Roland Garros in June, Swiatek won three matches in Bad Homburg before withdrawing from the semifinals with a viral illness.

“Throughout the whole season, it’s hard for me to think about grass,” Swiatek said. “I was actually thinking last year that maybe it would be good, doing part of the preseason on grass. Only the idea is pretty crazy because still we have, like, four or five weeks of preseason usually right now when you play the [WTA] Finals.

“If I would have more time to play on grass, I’m pretty sure that I would be able to play better and better.”

When Swiatek was asked what, specifically, she was working on for grass play she quickly named footwork.

“Because that’s, I think, where my strength is on other surfaces,” she said. “For sure, sliding is tricky here so you have to slow down and stop before the shot in a different way. I feel like if you have time to adjust to the surface and then use your intuition on matches, I was able to do that a little bit in Bad Homburg.”

Before this year's Wimbledon, Swiatek and her team reconstructed her run-up to this event in 2022.

"I remember we did a lot of things that were connected to touch and slices, getting back slices," she said Monday. "I think it's great. That's kind of what Agnieszka Radwanska was using a lot, what my coach kind of taught me that last year.

"This year, I feel like we did more in terms of just like my baseline game, but also footwork, I think, because I just had more time to try all these things that I practiced on matches in Bad Homburg."

Swiatek idolizes the Spanish champion Rafael Nadal and has borrowed a number of his signature components -- not least, the hyper-drive, topspin forehand. When Nadal lost to Roger Federer in the 2007 Wimbledon final, a thrilling five-set match, Nadal sobbed afterward in the locker room. He told his coach and uncle, Toni, he might never find himself with that kind of opportunity at the All England Club.

A year later, already with four Roland Garros titles, Nadal broke through, defeating Federer in an epic five-set match. He was 22. Swiatek, also 22, has three French Open titles and is keen on following Nadal’s trajectory on grass.

In some ways, Nadal’s success on clay -- he has won a record 14 titles at Roland Garros -- made it more difficult to transition to grass. In his early years, he was positioned far behind the baseline and too willing to play the long game, hoping his superior conditioning would prevail.

With lower-bouncing balls on grass, he learned to creep closer to the baseline to take time away from opponents and shorten points. And, against his nature, the risk-averse Nadal began hitting bigger serves that play so well on the faster surface, earning more free points.

“I played so well [last year] in Roland Garros that I [felt] I should play well here as well,” Swiatek said. “But it’s different. Your brain has to kind of feel the ball is bouncing lower. You can’t think about things like that during the match. So I think this year, it’s going to be a little bit easier for me to use my intuition a little bit more.

“I think it’s going to be fine.”

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So far there's a vast difference with how Iga is playing this year vs last (win streak had a lot to do with it) but just in general. 

Couple of matches on grass before Wimbledon have done her a world of good. 

Like in BadHomburg she's really thinking out there instead of just reacting, and just really adapting her game to the grass. Been a joy to watch.

Iga Swiatek gets favorable Wimbledon draw

Elena Rybakina will have to navigate a draw filled with upset artists and in-form grass-courters as she embarks on her Wimbledon title defense next week.

The No.3 seed will open against Shelby Rogers, who has notched seven Top 10 wins in her career and who has defeated Rybakina twice in five previous meetings. In the second round, she could face Alizé Cornet, whose 25 wins against Top 10 opponents include an upset of Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon 2022 that snapped the World No.1's 37-match winning streak.

Three of this year's grass-court tournament winners have also landed in Rybakina's quarter: Nottingham champion Katie Boulter, Birmingham champion Jelena Ostapenko and Berlin champion Petra Kvitova. There could also be a rematch of last year's Wimbledon final in the quarterfinals, where Rybakina is projected to face No.6 seed Ons Jabeur.

Swiatek, fresh off a successful Roland Garros title defense, will open against Zhu Lin, while No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka starts against Panna Udvardy. Sabalenka could face a rematch of the Roland Garros semifinals, where she lost from match point up to Karolina Muchova, in the last 16.

The intriguing opening-round matchups include wild cards between seven-time major champion Venus Williams and Elina Svitolina, who returned from maternity leave in April, and No.7 seed Coco Gauff against former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who successfully came through qualifying this week.

Despite being a former Wimbledon junior champion, it's no secret Swiatek feels she has yet to fully work out grass courts. She made her first grass-court semifinal in Bad Homburg this week before pulling out with an illness. The highest-ranked player standing between Swiatek and a first Wimbledon quarterfinal is No.14 seed Belinda Bencic, who withdrew from all her pre-Wimbledon grass warm-ups with an injury.

Swiatek is projected to face No.7 seed Gauff, against whom she has yet to lose a set in seven meetings, in the quarterfinals. Gauff, currently in the Eastbourne semifinals this week, has some intriguing obstacles in her way. Her head-to-head against first-round opponent Kenin is all square at one win apiece, and the 2020 Australian Open champion is in strong form, dropping just 14 games in three qualifying matches.

Gauff could also meet the winner of the Williams-Svitolina matchup in the third round, followed by either No.11 seed Daria Kasatkina or No.19 seed Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round.

First rounds to watch: Martina Trevisan vs. Sara Sorribes Tormo; Linda Fruhvirtova vs. [30] Petra Martic; [28] Elise Mertens vs. [Q] Viktoria Hruncakova; [WC] Venus Williams vs. [WC] Elina Svitolina; [Q] Sofia Kenin vs. [7] Coco Gauff

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Iga Swiatek withdraws from Bad Homburg semis due to food poisoning

No.1 seed Iga Swiatek has withdrawn from her Bad Homburg Open semifinal against Lucia Bronzetti, citing GI illness, the tournament announced Friday.

"I'm so sorry but I have to pull out of my match today," Swiatek said in a statement. "I had a restless night because of some fever and possible food poisoning. I'm not able to perform today and I need to take care of myself. I hope I'll be fine soon. Your support in Bad Homburg was amazing, thank you."

Swiatek had defeated opponents including Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria and No.9 seed Anna Blinkova to reach her first grass-court semifinal in Bad Homburg.

Read more: 2023 Wimbledon seeds: Inside the numbers

Having captured her fourth Grand Slam title at Roland Garros last month, she will carry a 10-match winning streak into Wimbledon next week, where she opens up against Zhu Lin.

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Well damn. I was really looking forward to this, Iga had a real chance of grabbing her first grass court title. 

Hopefully it really is just a case of bad food poisoning and she'll be ok in a few days. 

Of course many people think she's faking it in order to get a few extra days rest before Wimbledon. 

While there may be some truth to her wanting more rest before a Grand Slam, I believe she really wanted this title and wouldn't have withdrawn if she were able to play. 

It's just not in her nature to give opponents walkovers. The very fact that this is her first ever WTA match withdraw is proof of that. 

Hopefully we'll get more information on Iga's physical health at tomorrow's Wimbledon presser. 

Fingers crossed she feels better. 

Sending a prayer to the tennis gods for a speedy recovery for the World #1.

Iga Swiatek on a 10 match win streak moves into Bad Homburg semis

 

World No.1 Iga Swiatek continues to break new ground on grass. The three-time French Open champion advanced to the first grass-court semifinal of her career after defeating Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Bad Homburg Open.

Swiatek will face Italy's Lucia Bronzetti next for a spot in her first grass-court final.

Playing her first tournament since her successful title defense at Roland Garros, Swiatek's victory over Blinkova extended her current win streak to 10 matches. Making her Bad Homburg debut, Swiatek dropped her first set against Tatjana Maria in her opening match but has lost just 11 games across six sets since.

"I'm happy that I can play such solid tennis," Swiatek said. "Usually, there's not much time to practice on grass so I'm pretty happy that I used that time 100 percent between Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

"I'm happy that I'm feeling confident and hopefully I can play like that for the next two weeks."


In her first meeting against Blinkova, Swiatek eased through her opening service games before breaking for a 4-2 lead in the first set. Serving at 75 percent first serves in for the match, Swiatek went unbroken for her sixth consecutive set in Bad Homburg.

Swiatek finished the 72-minute match with a remarkably clean stat sheet, hitting 24 winners to just seven unforced errors. Blinkova, who broke through to make the Round of 16 at Roland Garros earlier this month, finished with seven winners to 13 unforced errors.

"I wouldn't put myself close to being an expert on grass, but I'm making progress and that's the most important thing for me," Swiatek said. "The time here really helped me. Every year I feel like it's easier to get used to the conditions."

Swiatek will face No.65 Lucia Bronzetti in the semifinals on Friday. The 24-year-old Italian advanced to her first grass-court semifinal after defeating France's Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-3.

The second semifinal will feature No.60 Emma Navarro, who advanced to her first tour-level semifinal after Rebaka Masarova was forced to retire due to knee injury after leading 7-6(2), 1-1. The 22-year-old American will face either No.2 seed Liudmila Samsonova or Katerina Siniakova.

After splitting the first two sets, Samsonova and Siniakova saw their quarterfinal suspended due to light. That match will resume on Friday.

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