Vinay Kumar
LONDON: After a little over two hours on court, having teetered on the brink, Iga Swiatek ended her nervy Wimbledon opener with an ace. The Pole then sank into her courtside seat, buried her face in her hands and sobbed, the relief of survival etched across the defending champion’s face.It had been a gloomy start to Tuesday in south-west London. Early drizzle and cold winds eventually gave way to bright afternoon sunshine. After last week’s heatwave, the cooler conditions offered welcome respite. On Centre Court, though, where Swiatek kicked-off her title defence against the tricky American Taylor Townsend, she ran into rough weather.Swiatek exploded off the blocks. After saving five breakpoints in her opening service game, her tennis was as crisp as the blue sky above, she wrapped up the first set in just 31 minutes.Townsend, though, had no intention of fading away. The world No. 79 in singles, dressed in lace and frills, with a large white bow in her hair that appeared to echo the style of her friend Naomi Osaka, watching from the player’s box, began to weave a subtler touch. The 30-year-old carved out a double-break lead and, after the defending champion’s 10th error of the set, stretched the advantage to 4-0. Swiatek mounted a brief response on her serve, but the left-hander didn’t relinquish her grip.Swiatek survived a near 20-minute opening game in the deciding set, saving four break points before holding serve. She then held her nerve to close out a 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory.
Iga Swiatek gets emotional after winning her first round women’s singles match against Taylor Townsend. (AP Photo)
The third seed’s father, Tomasz, and sister, Agata, seated in the front row of the Royal Box, cheered the Pole on.“I’m not sure if I’m able to talk that much, it has been a tough couple of weeks. Not a season where everything went how I wanted. I don’t think I won any three-set matches this year, so I’m happy I could do it here,” the six-time major winner said. Her record in three-set matches this year stood at 4-12 coming into Wimbledon. “In the end I kept my composure.”Swiatek, who had barely gathered herself enough to applaud Townsend as Centre Court rose to give the American a standing ovation, didn’t waste an opportunity to live up to her hard-earned reputation as Wimbledon’s “towel thief”, stuffing the match towels into her bag. The Pole, who has become known for taking as many tournament towels as possible to donate to charity and give to friends and family, admitted she did not get to keep a single one of those that she collected last year.“Last year’s tactics didn’t really help that much because I ended up not having any of the towels because everybody took them away from me!” she rued. “Even though it went viral last year, I’m not afraid to do it again. I need to go for even more.”Swiatek will face Czech Karolína Pliskova, the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up, in the second round.Meanwhile, last year’s runner-up Amanda Anisimova advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over North Macedonian qualifier Lina Gjorcheska, while the 2024 finalist Jasmine Paolini fought back from a set down to beat Robin Montgomery 0-6, 6-4, 7-5.Despite the defeat, Gjorcheska made history as the first player from North Macedonia to compete in the singles draw of a Grand Slam. At 31, she also became the oldest woman to make her Grand Slam singles debut since 1971.Gjorcheska enjoyed her moment on one of tennis’ biggest stages, but it was Anisimova, the sixth seed, who lost last year’s final without winning a game, who ensured the painful memories of that July afternoon 12 months earlier were firmly behind her.
