Top seed Iga Swiatek narrowly avoided an exit from Wimbledon after staging a marathon fightback in her fourth round clash.
The world No.1 triumphantly fended off two match points during her 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3, win over Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic after three hours of play. It is the first time Swiatek has reached the quarter-finals of the grasscourt major where she is seeking a fifth Grand Slam trophy. She has now recorded 107 wins on the Tour since the start of 2022.
“It wasn’t easy. She had match points and I don’t know if I have even came back from match point down in my career before. I feel I needed the win to believe in myself in this surface,” she said afterward.
“I had my chances in the first set, it wasn’t easy to get past that. I wanted to be solid and I’m happy I was really disciplined.”
Sunday night’s Center Court showdown was a match of very fine margins. During the opener, Swiatek had six chances to break her opponent with two of those being set points when she was leading 5-4. However, the Pole failed to convert any of them. Then in the tiebreaker, she got off to a nightmare start by losing six out of the first seven points played. Enabling a confidence-surging Bencic to go on and seal her lead.
Swiatek left the court for a toilet break after the blow and returned to action guns blazing. Swinging freely and increasing the intensity of her shots, she broke immediately at the start of the second set for a 2-0 lead before once again getting pegged back. Then faced with the challenge of serving to stay in the match at 5-6, a wild backhand error handed Bencic two match points but the four-time major winner saved both of them.
“At a point like that you feel you gave your best, but you are still match points down. You are playing a bit easier. She’s leading anyway so you have nothing to lose. You’re already in a pretty bad position, so I just wanted to play and I guess it worked.” Swiatek commented on saving those match points.
It wasn’t until the second tiebreaker that Swiatek got her momentum back as her rival failed to hold all of her five service points played. Paving the way for her to take proceedings into a decider.
Weathering the storm, Swiatek went on to lead for the first time after a Bencic double fault gifted her a break for 3-1. The costly mistake proved to be pivotal in the outcome of the match. Serving for the victory, she converted her first match point by firing a forehand crosscourt winner.
“My love (for grass) is getting bigger and hopefully I am going to have as many days as possible on this surface,” she said.
“This is my best year on grass and the hard work is paying off.”
Since 2010 only two women have won the Wimbledon title whilst being the top seed. Serena Williams did so on three occasions and Ash Barty once.
