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France 24
12-07-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Swiatek hits back at critics after Wimbledon win
The 24-year-old was seeded eighth at the All England Club after a disappointing first half of the season, though she is fourth in the rankings after a run to the Bad Homburg final two weeks ago. Swiatek was asked at her post-match press conference whether winning Wimbledon so convincingly was a fitting riposte to those who have criticised her over her performances. "For sure the past months, how the media sometimes describe me, and I've got to say unfortunately Polish media, how they treated me and my team, it wasn't really pleasant," she said. "I hope they will just leave me alone and let me do my job because obviously you can see that we know what we are doing, and I have the best people around me. "I have already proved a lot. I know people want more and more, but it's my own process and my own life and my own career. "Hopefully I'm going to have a freedom from them, as well, to let me do my job the way I want it." 'Surreal' Swiatek will climb to third in the rankings on Monday after winning her sixth Grand Slam title on a blazing day on Centre Court. The former world number one destroyed the hapless US 13th seed in just 57 minutes and the American admitted she was "frozen by nerves". Swiatek, who had not previously gone beyond the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, said she was shocked to have won the grass-court Grand Slam, where she was a junior champion in 2018. She is better known for her prowess on clay, winning four French Open titles as well as the 2022 US Open, played on hard courts. "Who would have expected that?" she said. "It's something that is just surreal. I feel like tennis keeps surprising me, and I keep surprising myself. "I'm really happy with the whole process, how it looked like from the first day we stepped on a grass court. I feel like we did everything for it to go in that direction without expecting it, just working really hard." Swiatek said it was difficult to rank her Grand Slam triumphs but that winning on grass made it more "special and unexpected". "For sure, it feels like the emotions are bigger because at Roland Garros I know I can play well, and I know I can show it every year," she said. "Here, I wasn't sure of that. I also needed to prove that to myself." Swiatek said it had been special to be presented with the Venus Rosewater Dish by Catherine, Princess of Wales. "Overall the process of getting the trophy from her royal highness was something surreal," she said. "Since I'm a kid, honestly I'm a big fan of the royal family. It was amazing. I really appreciate that. I'm really grateful that it was her royal highness giving the trophy." © 2025 AFP
The Independent
09-07-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Iga Swiatek beats Liudmila Samsonova to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time
Iga Swiatek reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over 19th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova that went from a stroll to a bit of a struggle in the late stages Wednesday. Swiatek is a five-time Grand Slam champion, with four of those titles on the red clay of the French Open, and the other on the hard courts of the U.S. Open. She's also twice been a semifinalist at the hard-court Australian Open. The grass courts of the All England Club always had given her the most trouble as a pro, even though she did claim a junior championship there in 2018. In her five appearances in Wimbledon's women's bracket before this year, she had made it as far as the quarterfinals just once, exiting in that round in 2023. But the 24-year-old from Poland is enjoying a career-best run on the slick surface, thanks in part to being more comfortable with the footing required. Before the start of Wimbledon, Swiatek was the runner-up in Bad Homburg, Germany, her first final at a tournament played on grass — and her first final at any event in more than a year. That included a semifinal loss against Aryna Sabalenka at Roland-Garros last month, putting an end to Swiatek's 26-match French Open winning streak. On Thursday, Swiatek will face either No. 7 Mirra Andreeva or Belinda Bencic for a spot in the title match at the All England Club. Swiatek led by a set and 3-0 in the second against Samsonova, who was appearing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Soon, though, it was 4-all, then 5-all. But Swiatek held for a 6-5 lead, then broke to end it, and a smile spread across her face. ___
France 24
07-07-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Swiatek into Wimbledon quarter-finals
Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam winner, has never made the Wimbledon final. But the 24-year-old is in a strong position in the second week of the tournament after the exit of so many of the top seeds. In the last eight, Swiatek will face Russian 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova, who beat Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 7-5, 7-5 to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final. "Honestly it's pretty amazing. It's the first time I really enjoyed London. Sorry guys!" Swiatek said of her previous Wimbledon woes. "We are tennis players, so we feel well off the court when we feel well on the court." Swiatek has lost in the semi-finals of both the Australian and French Opens this year. But world number one Aryna Sabalenka is the only one of the top six women's seeds still standing. Although Swiatek has reached only one All England Club quarter-final, she made the Bad Homburg final on grass recently and also won the Wimbledon junior title. Following her run at Bad Homburg, Swiatek admitted playing on grass had never been easy for her as she said "maybe there is hope for me" on the surface. Despite her grass-court fears, the former world number one is three wins away from adding the Wimbledon trophy to her four French Open crowns and one US Open title. Swiatek's cause was helped by Tauson's struggles on Court One as the Dane complained about the slippier court and called for a medical time-out between sets. "Clara said at the net she wasn't feeling well. I hope she is going to be fine," Swiatek said.
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Iga Swiatek's Wimbledon and her tennis journey toward being her new, old self
THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON — There is a mysterious storm brewing in the bottom half of the women's draw at Wimbledon. At its center is a player that much of the field is trying to figure out, as she too tries to figure out who she is on this grass. It's not a surprise qualifier, or a player who has directly benefited from so many seeds making an early exit. Advertisement It's Iga Świątek, the five-time Grand Slam champion who spent 125 weeks as the world No. 1 between early 2022 and late 2024. She's the No. 8 seed at Wimbledon, but she's actually the world No. 4. Only three of the top seven players in the world are left in the draw. That version of Świątek can appear on the Wimbledon grass, but to make it happen, she will have to win a battle between her two tennis selves that she has been conducting since late last year. Świątek won the girls' singles title at the All England Club in 2018. Two years later, she won her first Grand Slam at the French Open. Two years after that, she won the 2022 U.S. Open, as well as the first of three consecutive French Opens. But she also hasn't won a tournament since she won the last of those three, 13 months ago. She has only been to the second week of Wimbledon twice in five tries. But going off her first two matches here so far and her run to the finals at a warm-up event in Bad Homburg, Germany, Świątek has shown signs that she might be getting inside the tennis time machine she has been building the past few months. She is going back toward the player she was when she won the junior title here, the player she was during her ensuing climb to the top of the game. Advertisement That player floated up and down and all across court with an a preternatural ease that veterans long for. She played with variety and spin, and happily worked her way through points instead of taking the biggest swing she could at first chance. She won points with cute angles and deft stop volleys. And when swinging hard wasn't working, her fallback plan was something other than swinging even harder. That became eminently clear Thursday, after Świątek dropped the opening set to Caty McNally, an American qualifier and the world No. 125, on Centre Court. She ran away with the next two and the match, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1. She didn't do that by landing more first-strike bullets an inch in rather than a foot wide. She did it by firing fewer bullets. Her first serve slowed down. When she was returning, she focused more on putting the ball back in play, often with a chip, rather than trying to crush it across the the court. During the first set she won just 12 of 25 points that stretched longer than four shots. During the next two sets she won 25 of 40. The same pattern occurred in her first match against Polina Kudermetova, when she won just five of 18 points longer than four shots during a tight first set, and seven of eight in the second. Her first serve slowed down slightly but became more effective in that match, too. Perhaps more importantly, she had played that way to go 4-1 up against McNally in the set that she lost. Then she did what she has done in her worst losses in recent times: she reverted to the all-out aggressiveness that became ingrained in her tennis between 2022 and 2024. It made her the dominant player in the world and won her Grand Slam titles. It also stayed some of her development, largely hid the finesse that had helped to carry her to the top of the sport, and created a psychological problem. Advertisement When things get tight, players do what they know. What Świątek knew became hitting every ball as hard as possible. But when things get tight, things go wrong, and hitting a ball hard when things go wrong means missing, a lot. Against McNally, she found that often elusive balance between raising her intensity while playing more methodical and patient tennis, as diametrically opposite as those two goals might appear at first glance. 'You can still raise your intensity and be patient and make smart decisions,' Świątek said after she prevailed. 'It just means that you're going to play these shots really 100 percent. But it doesn't mean that they need to be like crazy.' Advertisement Now, Wimbledon gets real, with a match that may test whether she can stick with something closer to the older version of herself, the one that Wim Fissette, the well-regarded coach who has worked with her since the end of last year, has tried to bring back to the court. In Danielle Collins, Świątek will face the player who took her apart in Rome on the red clay, her best surface, just two months ago. She pushed Świątek to the edge of her emotional danger zone, a place where she has spent a lot of time the past few months. Collins hits a big ball, the kind that can send Świątek backpedaling, rushing her forehand. And there's some history, too. Collins, seemingly unjustifiably, ripped into Świątek for what she referred to as phoney sincerity when Collins had to retire during the third set of their quarterfinal at the Paris Olympics last summer. Świątek said she had no idea Collins was talking about, because they had barely spoken previously. Advertisement The American will not bring a ton of subtlety to this match, on grass or on any other surface. She will see the ball and mostly try to tag the back of it, especially Świątek's attackable second serve. She is also desperate to hang around this tournament, which she loves more than any other. 'For a landscaper's daughter, you know, and coming from humble beginnings, I cherish it,' Collins said after her 6-4, 6-1 win over Veronika Erjavec, the Slovenian qualifier. 'It makes it even that more special. And you can see it when I'm out on court. Wimbledon is the happiest time of the year for me. I can barely sleep at night. I'm so excited to get in the car each morning and come here.' Advertisement Collins said she also might find an extra boost of confidence against Świątek, who has won seven of their nine matches, knowing that Świątek has never felt comfortable on the grass. That looked especially true the past three years when she won the French Open, which robbed her of time to prepare for the grass. Low sliding shots do make it hard for her to get her racket under the ball on her topspin-heavy forehand — just as Coco Gauff found out when she went out in the first round. Last year, Świątek's first match on grass following her Roland Garros title was also her first match at Wimbledon. She only got to play three, losing in the third round to a redlining Yulia Putintseva. Then she lost in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Out went Tomasz Wiktorowski, who preached aggression from the baseline for three years. In came Fissette. He has steadily helped her to add more shape and patience to her tennis, which has in turn, at least at this tournament, started to reverse the notion that she is fundamentally not good on grass. Her win percentage is 72. That's hardly poor form. But the big challenge for Świątek, resisting a reversion to the baseline aggression when matches get stressful, also gets magnified on grass, where sets can disappear in minutes and errors rack up more easily and quickly. It's early days at Wimbledon and there are hard matches ahead even if she beats Collins. Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion who has troubled her in the past is a potential fourth-round matchup. But it's clear Świątek is thinking differently on the grass this time round, especially after her success in Germany, where she beat Jasmine Paolini, last year's Wimbledon finalist, and Ekaterina Alexandrova, a big hitter capable of causing problems, on her way to the final. Advertisement 'You just have to get through some situations on the court, and it gives you the extra experience and kind of the momentum to go forward,' She said ahead of Wimbledon. For Świątek, her game on the grass is a work in progress, as it is everywhere. Each year, she learns a few things through experience. But she is one of the best players in the world, an all-time great already, playing at a tournament where the all-time greats usually figure out a way to win. It's the tournament where historically the best players generally do the best, because they figure out how to play aggressively, but with control, because often controlling points can be more important than trying to win them at the first chance. 'It's still tricky,' she said. 'You really have to trust your shots on grass. You can't really pull back. Any shot that will give your opponent more time to go in is probably the shot that will make you lose the rally.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Tennis, Women's Tennis 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
05-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Iga Swiatek's Wimbledon and her tennis journey toward being her new, old self
THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON — There is a mysterious storm brewing in the bottom half of the women's draw at Wimbledon. At its center is a player that much of the field is trying to figure out, as she too tries to figure it out who she is on this grass. It's not a surprise qualifier, or a player who has directly benefited from so many seeds making an early exit. Advertisement It's Iga Świątek, the five-time Grand Slam champion who spent 125 weeks as the world No. 1 between early 2022 and late 2024. She's the No. 8 seed at Wimbledon, but she's actually the world No. 4. Only three of the top seven players in the world are left in the draw. That version of Świątek can appear on the Wimbledon grass, but to make it happen, she will have to win a battle between her two tennis selves that she has been conducting since late last year. Świątek won the girls' singles title at the All England Club in 2018. Two years later, she won her first Grand Slam at the French Open. Two years after that, she won the 2022 U.S. Open, as well as the first of three consecutive French Opens. But she also hasn't won a tournament since she won the last of those three, 13 months ago. She has only been to the second week of Wimbledon twice in five tries. But going off her first two matches here so far and her run to the finals at a warm-up event in Bad Homburg, Germany, Świątek has shown signs that she might be getting inside the tennis time machine she has been building the past few months. She is going back toward the player she was when she won the junior title here, the player she was during her ensuing climb to the top of the game. That player floated up and down and all across court with an a preternatural ease that veterans long for. She played with variety and spin, and happily worked her way through points instead of taking the biggest swing she could at first chance. She won points with cute angles and deft stop volleys. And when swinging hard wasn't working, her fallback plan was something other than swinging even harder. That became eminently clear Thursday, after Świątek dropped the opening set to Caty McNally, an American qualifier and the world No. 125, on Centre Court. She ran away with the next two and the match, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1. She didn't do that by landing more first-strike bullets an inch in rather than a foot wide. She did it by firing fewer bullets. Advertisement Her first serve slowed down. When she was returning, she focused more on putting the ball back in play, often with a chip, rather than trying to crush it across the the court. During the first set she won just 12 of 25 points that stretched longer than four shots. During the next two sets she won 25 of 40. The same pattern occurred in her first match against Polina Kudermetova, when she won just five of 18 points longer than four shots during a tight first set, and seven of eight in the second. Her first serve slowed down slightly but became more effective in that match, too. Perhaps more importantly, she had played that way to go 4-1 up against McNally in the set that she lost. Then she did what she has done in her worst losses in recent times: she reverted to the all-out aggressiveness that became ingrained in her tennis between 2022 and 2024. It made her the dominant player in the world and won her Grand Slam titles. It also stayed some of her development, largely hid the finesse that had helped to carry her to the top of the sport, and created a psychological problem. When things get tight, players do what they know. What Świątek knew became hitting every ball as hard as possible. But when things get tight, things go wrong, and hitting a ball hard when things go wrong means missing, a lot. Against McNally, she found that often elusive balance between raising her intensity while playing more methodical and patient tennis, as diametrically opposite as those two goals might appear at first glance. 'You can still raise your intensity and be patient and make smart decisions,' Świątek said after she prevailed. 'It just means that you're going to play these shots really 100 percent. But it doesn't mean that they need to be like crazy.' Now, Wimbledon gets real, with a match that may test whether she can stick with something closer to the older version of herself, the one that Wim Fissette, the well-regarded coach who has worked with her since the end of last year, has tried to bring back to the court. Advertisement In Danielle Collins, Świątek will face the player who took her apart in Rome on the red clay, her best surface, just two months ago. She pushed Świątek to the edge of her emotional danger zone, a place where she has spent a lot of time the past few months. Collins hits a big ball, the kind that can send Świątek backpedaling, rushing her forehand. And there's some history, too. Collins, seemingly unjustifiably, ripped into Świątek for what she referred to as phoney sincerity when Collins had to retire during the third set of their quarterfinal at the Paris Olympics last summer. Świątek said she had no idea Collins was talking about, because they had barely spoken previously. The American will not bring a ton of subtlety to this match, on grass or on any other surface. She will see the ball and mostly try to tag the back of it, especially Świątek's attackable second serve. She is also desperate to hang around this tournament, which she loves more than any other. 'For a landscaper's daughter, you know, and coming from humble beginnings, I cherish it,' Collins said after her 6-4, 6-1 win over Veronika Erjavec, the Slovenian qualifier. 'It makes it even that more special. And you can see it when I'm out on court. Wimbledon is the happiest time of the year for me. I can barely sleep at night. I'm so excited to get in the car each morning and come here.' Collins said she also might find an extra boost of confidence against Świątek, who has won seven of their nine matches, knowing that Świątek has never felt comfortable on the grass. That looked especially true the past three years when she won the French Open, which robbed her of time to prepare for the grass. Low sliding shots do make it hard for her to get her racket under the ball on her topspin-heavy forehand — just as Coco Gauff found out when she went out in the first round. Advertisement Last year, Świątek's first match on grass following her Roland Garros title was also her first match at Wimbledon. She only got to play three, losing in the third round to a redlining Yulia Putintseva. Then she lost in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Out went Tomasz Wiktorowski, who preached aggression from the baseline for three years. In came Fissette. He has steadily helped her to add more shape and patience to her tennis, which has in turn, at least at this tournament, started to reverse the notion that she is fundamentally not good on grass. Her win percentage is 72. That's hardly poor form. But the big challenge for Świątek, resisting a reversion to the baseline aggression when matches get stressful, also gets magnified on grass, where sets can disappear in minutes and errors rack up more easily and quickly. It's early days at Wimbledon and there are hard matches ahead even if she beats Collins. Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion who has troubled her in the past is a potential fourth-round matchup. But it's clear Świątek is thinking differently on the grass this time round, especially after her success in Germany, where she beat Jasmine Paolini, last year's Wimbledon finalist, and Ekaterina Alexandrova, a big hitter capable of causing problems, on her way to the final. 'You just have to get through some situations on the court, and it gives you the extra experience and kind of the momentum to go forward,' She said ahead of Wimbledon. For Świątek, her game on the grass is a work in progress, as it is everywhere. Each year, she learns a few things through experience. But she is one of the best players in the world, an all-time great already, playing at a tournament where the all-time greats usually figure out a way to win. It's the tournament where historically the best players generally do the best, because they figure out how to play aggressively, but with control, because often controlling points can be more important than trying to win them at the first chance. 'It's still tricky,' she said. 'You really have to trust your shots on grass. You can't really pull back. Any shot that will give your opponent more time to go in is probably the shot that will make you lose the rally.'
