French Open queen Iga Swiatek devises plan to end Wimbledon woes | Tennis | Sport
Iga Swiatek will spend a week practising on the “different” grass at Wimbledon in a mission to crack playing at SW19.
The Polish world No.1 became the first woman since Justine Henin to win three consecutive French Open titles – and was backed by the Belgian to break Chris Evert’s record of seven on the Paris clay.
But Swiatek, 23, has yet to get beyond the quarter-finals of the grass-court Grand Slam.
She plans to play her first grass event in Berlin on June 17 and then arrive early at Wimbledon before the July 1 start. She played the Bad Homberg Open in Germany the week before Wimbledon last year.
“You don’t have much time to prepare on these kind of grass courts,” said her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.
“This is why we want to go to Berlin, just feel the grass, do the practice, and then go to Wimbledon. The grass of Wimbledon is different. That is why we want to be there a week before to feel those courts.
“She is getting better every time at Wimbledon, she could be better. Can she win it? Let’s take one at a time. Let’s see the draw. Let’s go one by one. This is a dream for the moment. It’s possible. Yes, she is able to do this.
“I can say this to you. She’s able to do this. We believe she is able to do this but let’s start from the beginning and go step by step.”
Swiatek won her fourth French Open title by beating Jasmine Paolini 6-2 6-1. Henin, who won her hat-trick of titles from 2007-09, said: “It is hard to say how many titles she will win at Roland Garros.
“She can win that is for sure. She can equal Chris Evert’s record of seven. Maybe in three years time” Who knows? At Wimbledon, I don’t know. A lot of things can happen. Other players believe they can beat her on grass.”
At the French Open, she has won 35 out of 37 matches. Nadal has a 112-4 record here.
Former world No.11 Alize Cornet said: “If she continues like this, she can become the female Rafa Nadal obviously.”
Nadal won his first Wimbledon in 2008 aged 22 after winning his fourth title in Paris.
Swiatek, who revealed she has considered doing her pre-season on grass, said: “I feel like every year it’s easier for me to adapt to grass.
“But I think the biggest progress I can make on grass right now is using my serves better, but also I don’t expect a lot. The balls are different. Overall tennis is different on grass. I’ll just see and I’ll work hard to play better there.”
Paolini suffered double disappointment this weekend when her Italian pairing with Sara Errani lost the women’s final 7-6 6-3 to Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova.
