Dominant Swiatek cruises to maiden Wimbledon crown

LONDON — For years, Iga Swiatek never quite felt comfortable on Wimbledon's grass courts, and never thought she could add a trophy there to her other Grand Slam triumphs. Boy, did that turn out to be wrong — and by some distance.

Not only is Swiatek now a champion at the All England Club, she became one with a historic victory over Amanda Anisimova on Saturday — finishing 6-0, 6-0, it was the first women's final at the tournament in 114 years in which a player failed to claim a single game.

"It seems," said Swiatek, who is now also 6-0 in major title matches, "super surreal."

That's a good way to describe the way things unfolded on a sunny, breezy Centre Court against the 13th-seeded Anisimova, a 23-year-old American in her first Slam final.

"I was a bit frozen there, with my nerves. Maybe the last two weeks I got a bit tired or something," said Anisimova, who skipped practice on Friday because of fatigue and felt pain in her right shoulder while warming up before the match.

"It was a bit tough to digest, obviously, especially during and right after," Anisimova said. "I was a little bit in shock."

With Kate, the Princess of Wales, sitting in the Royal Box and on hand to present the trophies, the whole thing took just 57 minutes. The previous 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon women's final was all the way back in 1911.

"Honestly, I didn't even dream (of this), because for me, it was just, like, way too far, you know?" Swiatek said.

Maybe, she suggested, the lower expectations she, and plenty of other people, held for her at Wimbledon helped. For once, she wasn't the top seed. The 24-year-old Pole was not listed by many among the title contenders.

"I could really focus on getting better and developing as a player," Swiatek said, "rather than everybody just asking me to win, win, and nothing is good besides winning."

She won 55 of Saturday's 79 points, despite needing to produce merely 10 winners. Anisimova, shaky from the start, put only 33 percent of her first serves in during the first set and finished with 28 unforced errors.

Certainly the pressure she was under from Swiatek's near-perfect play was a factor. Swiatek delivered serves at up to 195 km/h, got 78 percent of her first serves in, and used deep groundstrokes to grab 16 of the 20 points that lasted five shots or more.

"She definitely made it difficult for me," Anisimova said.

Swiatek already owned four titles from the French Open's red clay and one from the US Open's hard courts, but this is the first one of her professional career at any grass-court tournament. And it ended what could be considered a long title drought for Swiatek, who last won a trophy at Roland Garros in June 2024.

She is the eighth consecutive first-time women's champion at Wimbledon, but this particular win stands out just because of how stunningly dominant it was.

Anisimova won her first-round match less than two weeks ago by a 6-0, 6-0 score, and eliminated No 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals, but she never looked anything like that player in the final.

When it was over, Anisimova sat on the sideline crying, while Swiatek climbed into the stands to celebrate with her team — and Friends actress Courteney Cox.

Swiatek was the Wimbledon junior champion as a teen in 2018, but had never been past the quarterfinals as a pro at the All England Club. Her only other final on the surface came as runner-up at a tuneup event in Germany right before Wimbledon began.

Swiatek spent most of 2022, 2023 and 2024 at No 1 in the WTA rankings, but was seeded No 8 at Wimbledon. She served a one-month doping ban last year after failing an out-of-competition drug test; an investigation determined she was inadvertently exposed to a contaminated medical product used to aid sleep and combat jet lag.

At 17, Anisimova was a semifinalist at the 2019 French Open; her father died shortly afterward. On Saturday, Anisimova's mother arrived in England for a rare chance to be at one of her daughter's matches.

"My mom is the most selfless person I know, and she's done everything to get me to this point in my life," Anisimova said through tears, then spoke to her mother directly, saying: "Thank you for being here and breaking the superstition of flying in." And then, with a chuckle, Anisimova added: "It's definitely not why I lost today."

She took time away from the tour a little more than two years ago because of burnout. A year ago, she tried to qualify for Wimbledon, because her ranking of 189th was too low to get into the field automatically, but lost in the preliminary event. On Monday, she'll be ranked in the top 10.

"I wish," Anisimova told the crowd, "that I could have put on a better performance for all of you."

Agencies Via Xinhua