LONDON. — Before this year, there was no love lost between Iga Swiatek and the grass courts of Wimbledon.
So what if it was called the spiritual home of lawn tennis?
So what if it was the tournament that tennis greats such as Martina Navratilova, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic picked out as the one they always wanted to win above any other?
She may not have uttered the words “grass is for cows”, as Ivan Lendl once did when he opted to skip the tournament to go on holiday, but Swiatek seemed to share that sentiment as Wimbledon was never a happy hunting ground for her.
The five-time Grand Slam champion always looked like she could not wait to escape the leafy confines of the All England Club during her five previous visits, which often followed her run to the French Open title.
It was the only major where she had failed to reach at least the last four and there was little evidence that she had the desire to improve that record—until this year.
On Monday, the Polish eighth seed found her grasscourt wings to fly into the Wimbledon quarterfinals with a soaring 6-4, 6-1 victory over Danish 23rd seed Clara Tauson.
“It’s pretty amazing, this is the first time ever I’ve enjoyed London,” she told the crowd who started laughing.
“Sorry guys, I mean I’ve always enjoyed it. I feel good on the court when I feel good off the court.”
That feel-good factor was missing during her opening two service games with Danish 23rd seed Tauson on Monday as Swiatek kept misfiring her serve.
Cries of “ohh” rang around Court One as she opened her account with two double faults en route to dropping her serve to love.
When she produced another two successive double faults to drop her serve again in the third game the gasps grew louder and Tauson must have thought it was game on for her to knock out another Grand Slam champion following her success over 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina two days ago.
But from 3-1 down in the first set, and fueled by her favorite Wimbledon diet of pasta tossed with strawberries and yoghurt, Swiatek sprinted away with eight of the last nine games.
After extending her perfect record against Danish opponents to 4-0, she delved deeper into what had clicked for her on grass.
“I felt this year that I could really develop as a player. I’m doing the job no matter what the results are going to be,” said the Pole, who will next face Russian LiudmilaSamsonova.
“I feel like I’m doing a great job at just learning how to play on grass. First time I feel, like, more comfortable. I feel like the process has some kind of logic.
