New Delhi: “I want to thank everybody who is making this tournament unique because there’s no tournament like that. I was always anxious because of that… walking around here, on the Centre Court, it felt a huge pressure and a bit too much,” said Iga Swiatek in the trophy ceremony at Wimbledon. She had just thrashed Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in less than an hour in a one-sided blitz.The Polish player had reasons to be anxious every year considering her strong record on other surfaces but grass. The 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 French Open and 2022 US Open champion had never won the Wimbledon.With the hype heightened around her, she would come to SW19 and go down in dismal and disappointing fashion. It started with 81st ranked Viktorija Golubic in 2019 and continued with Ons Jabeur (24th ranked), Alize Corner (37th), Elina Svitolina (76th) and Yulia Putintseva (35th). The furthest she went, until this year, was a quarter-final. Ironically, Swiatek’s high as a junior was winning Wimbledon girl’s singles title in 2018.Seven years on, she lifted the trophy, much bigger in size in comparison, for the women’s singles event. The win, and perhaps the manner of it, surprised even herself. “Surreal” and “unexpected” were the key words as she spoke to the media.
“It’s a lot, especially after a season of ups and downs and a lot of expectations from the outside which I didn’t match by winning Wimbledon. It’s something that is just surreal and tennis keeps surprising me and I keep surprising myself,” she said.The ups and downs that former World No. 1 Swiatek alluded to includes a title drought going back to the 2024 French Open. She then went more than a year without reaching the final of a tournament. At the 2024 Olympics, held in Paris at the site of the Roland Garros, she lost in the semi-finals and cried for six hours. There was also a one-month doping ban in November 2024 for accidentally taking a contaminated medicine.On Saturday, she didn’t step a foot wrong. As she went 6-0 in major title finals, she won 55 of 79 points; served as high as 121mph; got 78% of her first serves in and bagged 80% of points that lasted five shots or more. The 6-0, 6-0 win is only the second in Wimbledon’s history – the last coming in 1911 – 114 years ago!Case of flying below the radar helped. That was induced, in part, by her poor record at Wimbledon. She wasn’t the top seed. She, and the rest of the world, had lower expectations from her.“I could really focus on getting better and developing as a player,” Swiatek said, “rather than everybody just asking me to win, and nothing is good besides winning.”“Honestly, I didn’t even dream (of this), because for me, it was just, like, way too far, you know?” Swiatek said.There was also more time to prepare for the grass court season. Having been beaten by Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open, Swiatek hit the grass courts of Mallorca a month ago which was followed by a final run, her first on grass, at Bad Homburg in Germany.At the manicured lawns of SW19, she dropped just one set or 35 games. No woman had lifted the trophy at Wimbledon with such dominance in this century. She became the second player, after Steffi Graf, to win a women’s singles major final with a double bagel. The German legend had taken 32 minutes then, Swiatek needed 57 minutes. And the list of baffling statistics goes on.“Honestly, I didn’t even dream [of this] because for me it was just way too far,” Swiatek stated on court just moments after securing the title. “I feel like I’m already an experienced player, after winning Slams before, but I never really expected this one.”Does the Wimbledon title mean more than the French Opens and the US Open? Swiatek acknowledged that it was a tough question before going on to admit that it was “special” for what it represents. And what it does represent is a big, bold exclamation mark on her resume.
