PARIS – Dressed in predominantly white tennis attire at the French Open, Iga Swiatek looked like she was already getting in the mood for Wimbledon and the only surface that remains her stumbling block.
She has been No. 1 in the world for well over a year now but is still a long way from No. 1 on grass with a 6-5 career record. Her extreme forehand grip and explosive footwork are not yet the right fit for the game’s original surface -- it was not called “lawn tennis” for nothing -- and it might come as a surprise to a younger generation of fans that three of the four Grand Slam tournaments were once held on grass.
“It’s something I haven’t figured out yet,” she told Eurosport this week. “Wimbledon is always a different challenge to any of the other Slams. But I would say winning Slams, it gives you kind of confidence that you can do it again on one hand, but on the other hand, everybody is watching you, everyone is targeting your back, so you feel that a little bit, and the pressure is bigger.”
She reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2021 and the third round last year, when she seemed resigned to an early exit and was upset by French veteran Alizé Cornet.
But by year’s end she was much more light-hearted about it, recording “Queen of Tennis”, a very clever video that channeled the scene from “The Lion King” when Mufasa instructs Simba from on high that “everything the light touches” below is their kingdom.
Swiatek stands on a bridge with a panoramic view alongside Wiktor Zborowski, the baritone-voiced actor who dubbed Mufasa in the original Polish version of the film.
“What about that little dark area there?” Swiatek asks as they survey her sunlit domain after her brilliant 2022 season.