LONDON (AP) — More comfortable on grass courts than ever, Iga Swiatek played as well as she ever has on the slick surface — well, better than ever, actually — to reach her first Wimbledon final by defeating Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-0 at Centre Court on Thursday.
Swiatek will face Amanda Anisimova for the trophy on Saturday. Whoever wins will be the eighth consecutive first-time women’s champion at the All England Club.
“I never even dreamt that it’s going to be possible for me to play in the final,” said Swiatek, who has won five Grand Slam titles elsewhere and spent most of 2022, 2023 and 2024 at No. 1 in the WTA rankings.
Good as she is on clay courts, especially, and hard courts, too, Swiatek only once had been as far as the quarterfinals at Wimbledon until this week.
“I’m just super excited and just proud of myself,” the 24-year-old from Poland said after wrapping up the victory over Bencic in just 71 minutes. “Tennis keeps surprising me. I thought I lived through everything, even though I’m young. I thought I experienced everything on the court. But I didn’t experience playing well on grass. That’s the first time.”
There were signs of a breakthrough right before Wimbledon: She made her first career final on grass in a tournament at Bad Homburg, Germany — losing to Jessica Pegula, then crying on court — and that also happened to be her first final at any event in more than a year.
The last 12 months also including a doping case in which Swiatek wound up with a month ban after it was determined she was exposed to a contaminated medical product used for trouble sleeping and jet lag.
Now she is one win away from ending her overall championship drought and adding to the Grand Slam hardware she already has earned: four titles at the French Open and one at the U.S. Open.
She is 5-0 in major finals, while Anisimova, a 23-year-old from the United States, will be making her debut in that round at a major on Saturday.
They played each other as juniors when they were teens but never have met as professionals.
“She can play amazing tennis and she loves fast surfaces, because she has a flat game,” Swiatek said about Anisimova. “So you have to be ready for fast shots, for her being proactive. But I’m just going to kind of focus on myself.”
So what is the secret to Swiatek’s grass prowess lately?
“I improved my movement and I am serving really well and I feel really confident, so I’m just going for it,” said Swiatek, who listened to AC/DC, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Guns N’ Roses before her semifinal. “For sure, it’s working.”
___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
