Photo Source: Camera Sport
Iga Swiatek is playing some of the best grass-court tennis of her career, and she’ll need it in the next few rounds.
The five-time major champion, who reached her first grass-court final last week in Bad Homburg, problem-solved her way to a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory over American Caty McNally in two hours and 25 minutes and was happy to have spent some quality time on Wimbledon’s fabled Centre Court on Thursday.
Swiatek cracked 44 winners against 36 unforced errors and broke serve five times to set a third-round clash with Danielle Collins.
“Honestly it’s not that bad that I played a long match today, because I had more time here on Centre Court,” she said. “I have to appreciate and focus on the next one.”
Swiatek squandered leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in the opening set, dropping six of the final seven games of the stanza, but she took care of things neatly in sets two and three, winning 12 of the final 15 games to send her former doubles partner from her junior days packing.
Swiatek won the junior doubles title with McNally in 2018, and she also lost to the American in the Girls’ semifinals that year, a match she remembers as one of the most heartbreaking moments of her junior days.
Today in their second career meeting, the Pole improved to 13-5 lifetime at Wimbledon against the World 208 who is on the mend after returning from elbow surgery this year.
“I started the match well, so I knew that my game is there,” eighth-seeded Swiatek said. “I lost it for a second and for sure Caty used it. I knew at the beginning of the second set I had [good tennis] with me, I just needed to be more intense and more accurate with preparation before the shot.”
Swiatek leads Collins 7-2 lifetime, but they have split their two meetings at the majors. The Pole is the highest seed remaining in her quarter of the draw, but she is in a tough section of the draw. If she gets past Collins she could face former champion Elena Rybakina, the No.11 seed, in the round of 16.