By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday July 9, 2023
Iga Swiatek ralled from the edge of an upset to earn her biggest Wimbledon win on Centre Court on Sunday.
Photo Source: Mike Hewitt/Getty
For generational champions, it is a rite of passage at the Grand Slams. That tightrope-walking moment when disaster waits, crouched at the gates, ready to storm in and spoil the plight of the favorite. And in that moment it is fortune that favors the bold, when a would-be champion must treat those two well known impostors - triumph and disaster - as if they didn’t exist.
Iga Swiatek achieved that feat perfectly on Sunday (Kipling would be proud), and in doing so saved a pair of match points to defeat upset-minded Belinida Bencic 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3 to book her first Wimbledon quarterfinal.
Only two women – Venus Williams (2005) and Serena Williams (2009) – have saved match points en route to a Wimbledon singles title in the Open Era, and though she is a long way from matching them, Swiatek has cleared the rite of passage, saving match points to win a Grand Slam match for the first time.
In other words, hope – and lots of it – springs eternal for the Pole at Wimbledon.
“It wasn’t easy, obviously,” Swiatek told the crowd after her match, which lasted three hours and two minutes and marked the dramatic high point of the tournament thus far. “I’m really happy because I feel that I needed that win to believe in myself a little bit more on this surface.”
That confidence she refers to is coming, step by step, in a summer that has seen Swiatek blossom on her most challenging surface. With seven consecutive grass-court wins under her belt (three in Bad Homburg before pulling out, and four at Wimbledon), Swiatek can approach the pursuit of the final three victories safe in the knowledge that she has a career-best Wimbledon performance under her belt.
Last year she came in undercooked and was served an upset by Alize Cornet in the third round. This year she has emerged, far more determined, to assert herself and make a run.
Swiatek, who will face Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals, was brave as can be under fire from Bencic, and she turned the match on its ear with two brilliant points from 5-6, 15-40 down in the second set.
Of those two critical points she said: “It’s actually a little bit easier because you feel like she’s leading anyway so you play those shots more fearlessly. You kind of have nothing to lose – you are already in a pretty bad position.”
Bencic was brilliant in defeat, taking the ball early and blasting off both wings into the corners. Swiatek could have easily wilted, particularly late in the second with the thread of a solid performance starting to unravel. But she did not.
It’s a testament to her focus that she was able to dig her way out of the hole. Swiatek may be known for her dominance, and her ability to front run, but she proved today that she is no slouch when it comes to the comeback.
The win should serve her well in her next matches, and the confidence could be the commodity that pushes her over the edge in her quest to join Serena and Venus in the rarefied air of Wimbledon winners who stared down match points and came through with the goods.