Iga Swiatek has started her bid to become the first woman in a decade to defend their Wimbledon title with a turbulent victory over former doubles champion Taylor Townsend in the first round.
The Polish third seed rallied to a 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 win over the American on Centre Court. Swiatek has now won 29 of 30 first round matches at major events and her overall tally is 112. Her winning percentage is 82.8%, the second-highest among active players after Serena Williams.
“It was a tough couple of weeks. A season when not everything went how I wanted. I don’t think I won any three-set matches this year, so I’m happy I could do it,” Swiatek said.
“It means a lot to be the defending champion here. In the end I kept my composure. I knew I needed to be solid.”
Swiatek’s latest clash against Townsend was far from perfect. At the start of the match, she had to save five break points before holding her opening service game. After coming through that test, she breezed through the opener by winning five games in a row.
The problems started to mount in the second set after she was broken two consecutive times to go behind 0-4. Swiatek became flustered on the court and lacked rhythm, causing a rise in her mistakes to 10 unforced errors across just four games. As for Townsend, who was cheered on by Naomi Osaka in the crowd, she remained composed and stuck to her game plan to force proceedings into a decider.
Surviving a 21-minute service game, it wasn’t until halfway through the third set that Swiatek started to regain her momentum and that was at the expense of her opponents errors. Townsend produced two costly volleys at the net to drop serve and go behind 2-4. Despite the American retrieving that break, she would get broken once more to hand Swiatek the chance to serve the match out. Something she managed to achieve after two hours on court.
“Sometimes just serving the ball in might be a tough ask so this game for sure was about that and about believing that I can do it because it was long and many break points,” Swiatek commented on her start to the third set.
“I’m happy I kept my composure, I was listening to the box and they were supporting me a lot. I know I need to be solid and not look for winners or serves that would give me a point and play more safe to have a chance to play a rally.
“I’m happy in the end that this game went well because I think it was crucial and into the next one.”
Tuesday’s showdown was undoubtedly a shaky start to Wimbledon for Swiatek, who had played one Tour-level match on the grass this season coming into the event. Overall, she hit 36 unforced errors, nine double faults and won less than half of her second service points. Nevertheless, she still managed to clinch victory before busting into tears shortly after, out of sheer relief.
“I’m happy I could get through a match like that because I got quite tense in the second set and I was able to come back to my game,” she said.
“These are the moments where you feel that you did your job because it’s not hard when everything goes your way and you’re so confident that everything goes in.
“When there are ups and downs this is the time to check how much you can put to change things around and for sure, we’ll see [about defending her title] but with my game I feel pretty well and it’s just a matter of consistency.”
Awaiting Swiatek in the second round will be Karolina Pliskova, who was runner-up in 2021.
