“I felt like everything clicked this season…And I wasn’t expecting to be that consistent,” the WTA’s no. 1 player, Iga Swiatek explained. This was a situation the 21-year-old accepted right from the start of the season.
She might not have won the Australian Open, but went deep and made it to the semifinal round, something that was never predicted. It was all a good thing and well appreciated. Swiatek had captured 8 titles this season, much of which many players haven’t accomplished in one year or their entire career.
She won nearly evey tournament in straight sets and went on a 37-match winning streak. Iga defused her opponents in evey tournament for seven straight events. This includes winning 2 Grand Slams, the French and the U.S. Open. Iga even won the ‘Sunshine Double’ of winning Indian Wells and the Miami Open in the same season.
But when it came to Wimbledon, the Polish young woman was only held to the 3rd round, defeated by Frenchwoman Alize Cornet in straight sets. Alize was just as surprised as Swiatek and said smilingly “..what she’d done this year is out of this world…I can’t believe I’m the one that actually broke the streak.”
It was anyone’s guess when will Swiatek would either drop a set or lose a match. The frustration had seemed to build as every winning match of Iga’s was questioned as to when it would fall apart. The loss to Cornet might have been a relief and she’d said strongly “I’m not going to be hard on myself, it was kind of logical.”
She blew it off, but on paper it might have been an accident waiting to happen. Swiatek didn’t have any grass court performances before Wimbledon. She did win Wimbledon Girls’ back in 2018, but she just didn’t have the footwork and movement skills to be dictating her game on grass now.
She did consider herself a clay court specialist and a few titles on hard court, but never on grass. She admitted “I still need to figure out grass.” After playing excellent nearly all season, Swiatek will have expectations on her performances.
Will I be able to stay consistent as last season? Will I do much better on grass and get lots of tournaments in before Wimbledon? All of these things will be swimming in her head. This is especially the fact of taking control of a match.
She would explain “I feel like I’m a different player right now…I can kind of move forward and just focus on my next goals…” She knows that next season will be another test, another goal of winning events that she didn’t this year.
The idea of having a huge winning streak, Swiatek might feel that it was a one time thing and just staying focused on playing her game, keeping her rhythm and staying true to her strategies will get her the wins. Iga will not only have to deal with her competition of many ages and experiences, but the other opponent which will truely be herself.
