WIMBLEDON — John McEnroe once described Wimbledon – a tournament he won five times – as the one to which he “owes the most”.
He recognised that winning on the grass lawns at the All England Club means that little bit more to the average Joe, and can catapult a player into stardom in a way few other sporting events can.
Just ask Maria Sharapova, whose 2004 triumph as a 17-year-old remains the most famous of her five major titles, and earned her name recognition the world over.
It’s what makes Iga Swiatek’s arrival at the Wimbledon final feel all the more important. Like Sharapova, Swiatek already has five grand slam trophies in her cabinet, but she is yet to cut through to the masses in quite the same manner. A win on Saturday may well change that forever.
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Swiatek has long established herself as a powerhouse on the court. She first ascended to world No 1 by default, when Ash Barty took early retirement in March 2022, but Swiatek fully earned that status.
She immediately went on an emphatic 135-day, 37-match winning streak — the longest unbeaten run in the WTA since 1990.
From 2022 to the end of 2024, she won 87 per cent of her matches. At Roland Garros, where she won four titles in the last five years, her record is a remarkable 40-3. She spent 125 weeks at world No 1, putting her seventh in the all-time WTA list.
If we’re talking about win rates, time at No 1 and grand slams titles won, she is the most dominant player women’s tennis has seen since Serena Williams. And all by the age of just 24.
Yet, she still isn’t a champion that you would say the Wimbledon punters fully know and appreciate.
For one, her first Roland Garros win as a 19-year-old was during the Covid year, played in the autumn of 2020 with limited fans allowed due to social distancing.
She is also from Poland, a smaller market than other recent major winners like Coco Gauff or Emma Raducanu, which can come with its own limitations.
She is softly spoken and considers herself as an introvert too: and personality type does have a sway on these things.
A Wimbledon final is a showcase event for Swiatek, the woman (Photo: Getty)But we’re not talking about some nobody. Far from it. Swiatek has just shy of two million Instagram followers (not far behind Raducanu’s 2.7m), and luxury sponsorship deals with the likes of Lancome, Porsche and Rolex.
The cut-through she could achieve via a Wimbledon victory would boost her profile even further, and to the levels her achievements warrant.
It’s never a given. The last decade has seen many women rise to the challenge at Wimbledon: Saturday’s winner will be the ninth different woman to win in the last nine editions.
Barbora Krejcikova claimed the title in 2024 as the 31st seed and, beyond a few weeks of fanfare in the Czech Republic, she was blighted by injuries for most of the past year. It blocked her from riding the wave of momentum, in just the same way as her compatriot Marketa Vondrousova experienced the previous year.
Due to Swiatek’s record, a win here would not have the same feeling as theirs, of being lightning bolt, completely shock results. Despite a surprise loss in Paris last month and coming into Wimbledon as only the eighth seed, Swiatek was still the favourite in every single match she has played this fortnight at Wimbledon.
Saturday will be no different, against first-time major finalist Amanda Anisimova. In finals, Swiatek rises to the occasion and, ominously for Anisimova, she is unbeaten at this stage of grand slams.
Grass was always the missing piece for Swiatek. Wimbledon felt like a more difficult hurdle for her due to her usual success at Roland Garros, the quick three-week turnaround, and her relative discomfort on the surface. But with more time to prepare this year, she has really hit her stride.
“I think there’s no place to overthink here,” Swiatek said of the grass.
“You have to follow your instincts. If that is going well and you can rely on them, you feel comfortable, so this is kind of fun in some way and different than on other surfaces where you have more time to build the rally or something.
“When you’re playing well, it’s easy to enjoy.”
If she lifts the trophy on Saturday, she will become the youngest player since Serena Williams in 2002 to win grand slam titles on all three surfaces.
Only seven women have achieved that in the Open Era: Hana Mandlikova, Martina Navratilova, Sharapova, Barty, Williams, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.
Swiatek deserves to have her name join them.
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