LONDON (BN24) — For weeks last year, while Iga Swiatek was home in Warsaw, she spent time with friends and made new ones, all while quietly carrying a secret she dared not share.
“Obviously, in the back of my mind,” she said Saturday at the All England Club, “I had this thing.”
That “thing” was a doping case that overshadowed every moment. But it wasn’t the only burden. She was also navigating a coaching change, her longest title drought in years, a drop in the rankings, and the death of her grandfather.
“It all (happened) together,” Swiatek said. “It wasn’t easy.”
So when she stormed to her first Wimbledon title on Saturday—routing Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in just 57 minutes—it meant more than just a trophy.
A Milestone Achievement
At 24, Swiatek is the youngest woman since Serena Williams in 2002 to win major titles on clay, hard courts, and grass. Now, only an Australian Open crown separates her from a career Grand Slam.
But this was also the culmination of a grueling, humbling year. “The lesson is just that even when you feel like you’re not on a good path, you can always get back to it if you put enough effort and you have good people around you,” she said.
For a time, Swiatek was seen as almost untouchable. In 2022, she held the No. 1 ranking for most of the year and compiled a 37-match win streak. That run ended—fittingly—at Wimbledon.
She went on to win five Grand Slam titles: four at Roland Garros and one at the U.S. Open. But grass remained her nemesis. Before this fortnight, she had never reached even a Wimbledon semifinal.
A Year Without Finals—and a Doping Suspension
Over the past 12 months, the doubts multiplied. She left the 2024 Olympics in Paris with a bronze medal, fell in the third round at Wimbledon, exited the U.S. Open in the quarters, and lost in the French Open semifinals this spring.
For over a year, she didn’t appear in any tournament final.
Then came the doping suspension. Swiatek accepted a one-month ban after testing positive in an out-of-competition screening. Tennis authorities concluded the result stemmed from contamination in an over-the-counter medication she used for jet lag and sleep.
“The second half of last year was extremely challenging for me,” she wrote in March, explaining how the experience “forced me to rearrange certain things within myself.”
Even now, she admitted Saturday, she remains “way more scared about eating something that will be contaminated.”
Determined to prepare properly for Wimbledon, Swiatek began her grass-court training in Mallorca on June 12, exactly one month before Saturday’s final. She practiced in Germany and entered a warm-up tournament there, reaching the final and tearing up in the trophy ceremony.
Two weeks later, she lifted the Wimbledon trophy with a smile that suggested the weight had finally lifted.
As she wrapped up her final interview, she laughed and quipped: “That was a good therapy session.”
AP
