Iga Swiatek crushes Amanda Anisimova to win first Wimbledon title
Not only was it one of the shortest Grand Slam finals in modern history, it was the first women's final at the tournament in 114 years in which a player failed to claim a single game.
Swiatek's victory on a sunny, breezy afternoon at Centre Court took just 57 minutes and gave Swiatek her sixth Grand Slam title. She is now 6-0 in major title matches.
The 24-year-old from Poland finished with a 55-24 edge in total points and accumulated that despite needing to produce merely 10 winners. Anisimova was shaky from the start and made 28 unforced errors.
It turned into a nightmare afternoon for 13th seed Anisimova who became the first player to lose a Wimbledon final 6-0, 6-0 since 1911 and the first to do so at any Grand Slam since Steffi Graf beat Natasha Zvereva at the 1988 French Open.
Swiatek, who had never gone beyond the Wimbledon quarter-finals before this year despite winning four French Open crowns, could never have imagined that claiming her sixth Grand Slam title could have been as easy.
She dropped only two games in her semi-final against Belinda Bencic and was even more ruthless in the final, clinching victory with a backhand winner.
Swiatek, who reached the final of the grass-court tournament at Bad Homburg two weeks ago, looked increasingly strong while the top seeds tumbled at the All England Club.
She lost just one set in her run to the final.
But Anisimova was expected to prove a stern test after ousting world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals.
Anisimova made a nervous start in hot conditions on Centre Court.
She was broken in the first game, soon slipping 2-0 behind and the signs looked ominous. She appeared to have found her feet in her next service game but Swiatek refused to give ground and recovered to move 3-0 ahead when Anisimova double-faulted.
At 4-0 down Anisimova was facing a first-set wipe-out but she was powerless to halt the rampant Swiatek, who sealed the first set 6-0 in just 25 minutes.
The American won just six points on her serve in the first set and committed 14 unforced errors.
A desperate Anisimova could not stem the tide in the second set, double-faulting again in the third game to give her opponent game point and then netting a backhand.
The crowd got behind her but to no avail as Swiatek kept up her level, serving out to win and celebrating before consoling her devastated opponent.
Anisimova left court briefly before returning for the trophy presentation.
Swiatek is Wimbledon's eighth consecutive first-time women's champion since Serena Williams won her seventh and final title at the All England Club in 2016.
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