World No. 1 Iga Swiatek admitted grass is a “tricky surface” for her after surviving the Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove challenge at Wimbledon. On Thursday, first-seeded Swiatek overcame lucky loser Pattinama Kerkhove in three sets 6-4 4-6 6-3.
“For sure my confidence, I build it during this season,” Swiatek said after the win, per the WTA website. “It’s getting better and better on every tournament. I would say the grass is pretty tricky for me, I’m not going to lie.
I guess you can see that I’m not playing maybe as efficiently as on other surfaces. Basically my confidence is getting better overall. But this tournament is tricky and I’m still feeling out how to play the best game here.”
Pattinama Kerkhove on playing Swiatek
Entering Thursday, Swiatek was on a 36-match winning streak. Pattinama Kerkhove knew she had nothing to lose so she went out and played brave versus the Pole. “I was just, like, ‘Okay, go for it,'” Pattinama Kerkhove said in press.
“Every point, every ball, I had to do it. When she’s attacking, it’s so tough to take the points to defend against her. So my goal was just like go for every shot, go for every ball, and play aggressive. I did. Actually, it worked well.”
Swiatek was struggling on her serve early on as Pattinama Kerkhove opened an early 4-2 lead. Down by a break, Swiatek responded by claiming back-to-back breaks and winning four games in a row to overturn the deficit and win the opener.
After losing the first set, Pattinama Kerkhove claimed the first break of the second set in the seventh game to open a 4-3 lead, before serving out for a decider in the 10th game. Swiatek faced two consecutive break points in the opening game of the second set but she was able to save it and avoid going down by an early break.
Swiatek then broke Pattinama Kerkhove in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead and then held on to her serve the rest of the match to win the match and set up an Alize Cornet meeting.
