Iga Swiatek didn’t have it all her own way against Caty McNally in the second round at Wimbledon, as she was forced to rally from behind to earn a victory.
The five-time Grand Slam champion continued her incredible run in the first two rounds of Grand Slams as she has now reached the third round of Grand Slams for 22 consecutive tournaments, while she took her overall third-round tally to 23.
With the win, the Pole made it 22 rounds of 32 appearances in a row since the start of the 2020 season and during that time she has won 88 sets with McNally’s opening set win was only the sixth time she had dropped a set.
Swiatek is only the fourth woman in the Open Era to reach the round of 32 in 22+ Grand Slam singles events in a decade after 18-time major singles winner Martina Navratilova in the 1980s, and Spaniards Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the 1990s.
The former world No. 1 is also the third player this century to reach the third round for 22+ majors in a row after Amelie Mauresmo and Serena Williams while she is hot on the great Novak Djokovic’s heels in terms of total first and second round wins since her debut in 2019.
Djokovic sits on 24 and he is followed by Swiatek on 23, Alexander Zverev on 21 with Elina Svitolina and Elise Mertens on 20.
Of course, she will be the first to admit she is yet to really hit consistency on grass with her best run at Wimbledon a quarter-final appearance in 2023, but her path has been made easier with early exits from second seed Coco Gauff and third seed Jessica Pegula.
Swiatek also says she dropped her level a bit during that opening set against McNally, something she can’t afford to do if she is to far at Wimbledon this year.
“I think I lost my intensity. Obviously I knew I can play well because I did at the beginning of the match, but I lost the quality, did some unforced errors,” the eighth seed said. “Then on grass I feel like the momentum can change pretty quickly. I let her back in the game.
“I was still, like, trying to be proactive, but sometimes I missed easy shots. Yeah, this for sure gave her space to push sometimes.”
She added: “You can still raise your intensity and be patient and make smart decisions. It just means that you’re going to play these shots really 100%.
“But it doesn’t mean that they need to be like crazy. So, like, these are two different things, I would say. Yeah, it’s always good to have a balance obviously.”
Up next is Danielle Collins, who defeated her on her favourite clay surface in Rome in May.
“I will need to prepare tactically for sure tomorrow,” the world No 4 said.
Asked about the American’s game, she replied: “Well, flat hitter, baseline player. Solid serve. Likes to be proactive, be aggressive.”
