By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Wimbledon's grass has been a major slippery slope for Iga Swiatek.

Finding her footing and imposing her forehand, Swiatek high-stepped into the Wimbledon third round.

More: Ash Barty Gives Birth!

Swiatek sped through eight straight games shredding Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2, 6-0.

The top-seeded Pole won 19 of 23 first-serve points and pounded 27 winners compared to 3 for Sorribes Tormo.

"I feel really confident," Swiatek said. "I was able to kind of do everything tactically as I wanted to, as my coach wanted me to do, on first and second round.

"Yeah, I feel confident. I'm going to try to kind of keep it going."



Reigning Roland Garros champion Swiatek is bidding to become the first woman to win the French Open and Wimbledon in succession since Serena Williams won the first three major titles of 2015.

It was Swiatek's 12th straight win and sends her into a third-round clash vs. either 30th-seeded Petra Martic or Frenchwoman Diane Parry.

Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam where Swiatek has yet to reach at least the quarterfinals.



The four-time Grand Slam champion is playing for her first SW19 quarterfinal and to retain the world No. 1 ranking. If Swiatek reaches the quarterfinals, then No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka must win the title to surpass the Pole for the top spot.

Swiatek said she's focused on fine-tuning her game from the ground up.

"I kind of focused a little bit more on footwork and what I want to do with that because I always feel like this is my strength," Swiatek said of her grass-court preparation. "It's a little bit easier for me this year to adjust my game to grass."

Last year, Alize Cornet snapped Swiatek's 37-match winning streak in a third-round Wimbledon upset.

This time around, Swiatek is already steps ahead of opponents still trying to finish first-round matches after a soggy Wednesday. 

"I try to keep my mind busy in terms of what I want to do on court, what my tactic is, what technical stuff I should keep remembering about," Swiatek said. "It's a way for me to keep my focus. Yeah, well, I didn't have any, like, tight situations yet, so we'll see how that's going to go.

"For now I've been feeling pretty confident and I really kept my focus from the beginning of the matches till the end, so that's great."

Photo credit: Rob Newell/CameraSport