Wimbledon, England — Iga Sweet may not love grass, but whatever the surface, he tasted the fight and bullish resolve as she defeated American Catty McNally 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 and recovered to reach Wimbledon’s third round on Thursday.
World No. 208 McNally looked poised to cause upset when he took away his way back from 4-1 to win his first set with the five-time Grand Slam champions.
At that point, Sweet’s mediocre record at the All England club, which Paul never passed the quarterfinals, appeared to be weighing heavily on her shoulders.
But rather than moving away from scrapping, the original world number one came out for the second set, bounced off a psychological switch that she couldn’t play with McNally.
She broke early in the second set, never looking back, lost three more games, setting up a clash with another American Daniel Collins.
“I started the game well and I knew my game was there,” Swiatek said. “I knew at the start of the second set it had to be more accurate. I tried to improve it, but I’m happy it worked.”
The eighth seed may set her vision much higher than in the third round, but reaching the final 32 she emphasized consistency on the big stage.
The 23-year-old is the third player of the century to reach the third round in 22 consecutive women’s singles grand slams, following Amelie Mauresmo and Serena Williams.
Whether such a milestone is sufficient to persuade Swaitek is yet to be determined that she is superior on the surface so far, which has proven difficult to master.
Her name has four French open titles, the other in the US, and she has appeared in two semi-finals in Australia, so her dissatisfied Wimbledon record stands out like a thumbs up.
While her run to the Bad Homburg Final in the Grass Court warm-up event showed that her game wasn’t entirely inappropriate on the surface, there was a time in her first set with McNally that she might have thought the tournament might be for her.
After breaking early and taking a 4-1 lead, the wheels temporarily escaped as McNally did everything to get Swiatek out of her comfort zone.
The Americans received their serves towards the baseline and tried to shorten the time to respond to the return to swiatek, and it worked for a while.
McNally drove four breakpoints in his seventh game before finally seizing the chance on his fifth attempt before taking a 6-5 lead when Swiatek swiped the length of his backhand.
Everything seemed to be on the American path when Paul fired a wild forehand from the target and handed the opener to McNally. But that was as good as it got.
Swiatek is well aware of McNally’s game – the pair were a young doubles partner, winning a junior title at Roland Garros in 2018, and ending up being demolished in double time.
She took a 2-0 lead in the second set, and once again leveled the contest with one set each.
Swiatek then did the same at the start of the third set, moving 2-0 and 2-0 on a swiped crosscoat in the forehand.
It was easy for Paul then, but he had to save five breakpoints before closing the victory with an ace.
As well as gaining her spot in the next round, the match with her old performance partner provided an incredible trip through Memory Lane.
“I remember these games pretty well, so it’s pretty funny,” she said of Junior Days.
“We know each other well… She’s one of those people who not only are you a rival on tour, but also make you feel like you respect each other and like each other.”
Defending champion Barbora Krezikova was also taken to three sets before beating Caroline d’Orhid 6-4, 3-6 and 6-2, with 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rivakina defeating Maria Saccari 6-3, 6-1.