Iga Swiatek looks to ease the surface tension

After winning her first WTA match on grass in a couple of years from a set down against 35-year-old Tatjana Maria, four-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek put the video of the match point on her Instagram, captioning it: “Working on it”.

PREMIUM

That’s an odd sentence from the unchallenged world No.1 for more than a year who has lost six matches this season so far and won 35. In contrast to the predominant Pole’s swift surge on clay and hard courts, the Swiatek-grass relationship has been a slow grind.

One that is, however, beginning to pick up pace gradually. Swiatek won a further two matches after beating Maria at this week’s WTA Bad Homburg Open to reach her first WTA semi-final on grass courts. The French Open champion withdrew from it citing possible food poisoning but walks into Wimbledon with much-needed game time, victories and confidence on a surface where she lacked all of it.

Which is strange, given the 22-year-old’s solitary junior Grand Slam title came on the lawns of the All England Club in 2018, when she felt “really good on grass”. Yet, the next season onwards after she turned pro, Swiatek’s struggles on that surface were evident as she crashed out in the first round of 2019 Wimbledon. By the time Wimbledon opened its doors again post pandemic, Swiatek’s stature had grown as a Grand Slam champion but her show on grass remained susceptible with a fourth round (2021) and third round (2022) exit.

Now a three-time French Open champion with a US Open crown to show as a consistent multi-court player, Swiatek’s schedule tweak has been a boon in raising her comfort level on grass. Last year, Swiatek went straight from lifting the title on the dirt of Roland Garros to finding her feet on the greens of SW19. This year, after an outrageous passing thought of having her pre-season on grass, Swiatek chose to dip her toes in a low-key Wimbledon tune-up event.

A week before the start of the Slam in London on Monday, therefore, she turned up for the WTA 250 tournament in Germany as the only top-10 player in the draw. The quality of the field though mattered little to the Pole whose objective was to get into a rhythm on an alien and peculiar surface. The primary focus was on her feet movement, she said in a press conference on Saturday, apart from getting more accustomed to the touch game and shots like slices.

“I wouldn’t put myself close to being an expert on grass, but I’m making progress and that’s the most important thing for me,” Swiatek said earlier this week in Germany. “The time here really helped me. Every year I feel like it’s easier to get used to the conditions.”

Schedule aside, what she has also changed is her mindset. Last year, months after becoming the unexpected world No.1, and days after becoming the expected French Open winner, Swiatek came into Wimbledon carrying the burden of having to prove herself as both. This year, she is still the world’s top player and the French Open champion, although a lot lighter in the mind.

“Last year, I felt a lot of pressure here because I was the world No.1. I felt because I played so well in Roland Garros, I should play well here as well,” she said on Saturday. “This time, I have just focused on practicing and learning a lot.”

That’s not to say Swiatek is not eager to crack the grass code. Such is the duration and differences of grass-court tennis that only Serena Williams, Ash Barty and Swiatek have made a WTA semi-final on the surface in the last decade. The Pole, conqueror of Paris and New York and semi-finalist of Melbourne, wants to do much more than she has so far in London.

“I deeply believe that the best players can play on all surfaces, and I want to become that kind of player who can play on grass as well and feel comfortable there,” she said.