Defending champion Iga Swiatek failed to control her emotions after securing a hard-fought victory against Taylor Townsend at Wimbledon. She clinched the evenly-matched contest 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 after two hours and two minutes. While many were surprised to see Swiatek break into tears as the tournament is still in its early stages, the Pole later explained why the result meant so much to her.

“I’m not sure if I’m able to talk that much,” she said during her post-match interview. “But it was a tough couple of weeks. Not a season where everything went how I wanted. I don’t think I won any three set match this year. I’m happy I could do it here. Obviously, it means a lot opening the court as defending champion. I’m just happy to be here.”

There had been massive question marks around Swiatek’s form ahead of her title defense at Wimbledon. The 25-year-old has pretty much struggled for form throughout the season so far, but it was the Miami Open from where her run of results dipped significantly. After suffering a first-round exit to Magda Linnette in the first round at Miami, Swiatek went on to have a disappointing clay swing.

The World No. 3’s new coach, Francisco Roig failed to turn her form around and her best result came at the Italian Open where she reached the semifinals. After getting knocked out in the fourth round of the French Open against Marta Kostyuk, Swiatek decided to only play one tournament before Wimbledon. But the disappointing results would continue as she got defeated by Emma Navarro 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in the first round of the Bad Homburg Open.

However, Swiatek is wrong for thinking that she hasn’t won a three-set match this year. She had defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 in the third round of the Australian Open. She had then got the better of Daria Kasatkina 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in the R16 of the Qatar Open. Her third three-set win had come in the first round of the Rome Masters when she had defeated Caty McNally 6-1, 6-7, 6-3.

Despite being the defending champion, Swiatek wasn’t being seen as one of the favorites to clinch the SW19 title this time around. However, she has certainly made a firm statement with her solid performance against Townsend.

The Pole certainly had to work very hard for the result against Townsend. She picked up from where she had left off last year and clinched the first set comfortably. However, problems would start arising for Swiatek in the second set. Her serve wasn’t anything great and she double-faulted to go down a break to Townsend.

The American would control the rest of the set to level up the match soon after. But Swiatek would return strong in the next set and would go on to save four break points in the first game. She earned a decisive break to make it 4-2 and eventually wrapped up the set comfortably.

This defeat meant that Townsend has now not won a singles match at Wimbledon since 2019. Though she would be disappointed with the result, she can hold her head high for the remarkable performance that she gave.

Taylor Townsend becomes the first player of this decade to achieve stunning feat

The 30-year-old became the first WTA player of the decade to take a set off Swiatek in the first round of a Grand Slam. Townsend achieved another feat by simply winning a game against Swiatek in the first set.

It saw her break Swiatek’s 20-game winning streak at Wimbledon. Notably, the World No. 3 had previously clinched the final eight games of her semifinal clash against Belinda Bencic at the SW19 last year. She won the encounter by 6-2, 6-0 and followed it up by playing one of the most one-sided finals in the history of the Grand Slam.

Swiatek went on to defeat Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 after just 57 minutes. She won all the 12 games and recorded arguably the most comprehensive win of her career. Though Swiatek prefers clay over grass, she still went on to have one of the most dominant campaigns in Wimbledon’s long history.

After getting past Townsend, Swiatek will now be taking on former World No. 1, Karolina Pliskova in the second round of the Championships. The Pole has a convincing 3-0 lead over Pliskova in the H2H record and will be the favorite to come out on top. A victory here could see Swiatek set up a clash against the returning Serena Williams in the third round.