WIMBLEDON, England -- Just hours after winning her fourth title at the French Open last June, Iga Swiatek was asked by a reporter about the upcoming grass season.
With the start of Wimbledon just weeks away, there were only a few opportunities to play in warmup events on the surface. Swiatek didn't seem concerned.
"If I would lose here earlier, maybe I would be able to play two more weeks on grass and then be a better grass player," Swiatek said matter-of-factly. "But if I had to choose, I love playing on clay, so I'm not going to give up that ever."
Swiatek then opted to skip all of the grass tournaments to focus on rest and recovery after the long clay season. She lost in the third round at the All England Club.
But this year, Swiatek did lose earlier at her beloved Roland Garros. She was upset by world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals, ending her dream for a fourth consecutive title at the major. Swiatek -- albeit involuntarily -- did have more time to prepare for the grass.
Her words from a year ago turned out to be right: The additional weeks on the surface helped her become a better grass player. But even she likely couldn't have predicted just how good, and just how dominant, she would become. Or how she would thrive without the overwhelming attention and pressure that she faced at the French Open.
And she certainly couldn't have guessed that she would be the 2025 Wimbledon champion. But that's exactly what happened Saturday, following an impressive fortnight and a staggering 6-0, 6-0 victory in the final to win in less than an hour over No. 13 seed Amanda Anisimova.
"Honestly, I didn't even dream [of this] because for me it was just way too far," Swiatek said on court just moments after securing the title. "I feel like I'm already an experienced player, after winning Slams before, but I never really expected this one."
Swiatek, 24, has now won six Grand Slam titles, and becomes just the eighth woman, and the only active WTA player, to win major titles on all three surfaces. She's also the youngest to do so since Martina Hingis in 2003. She's as surprised as anyone that she was able to do it.
IRONICALLY, SWIATEK'S HIGH POINT as a junior was at Wimbledon, when she won the girls' singles title in 2018.
It was her only Slam title as a junior, and she had been all but untouchable during her run. But even the brief recap on the Wimbledon website after her 6-4, 6-2 triumph in the final stated that "clay remains her preferred surface."
Sure enough, the clay was where Swiatek initially found the most success as a professional. She reached her first WTA final on the surface and then, as an unseeded 19-year-old and a relative unknown, stunned the tennis world by claiming the title at the pandemic-delayed 2020 French Open.
While many were unfamiliar with Swiatek and her game before the tournament, she made quite the impression during her run.
"The way she's playing right now, it would be hard to imagine she wouldn't win half a dozen majors," seven-time major champion and tennis analyst John McEnroe said after her victory. "It's incredible."
The clay remained her bread-and-butter, but she also emerged as a strong hard-court player as well. She won her first title on the surface in Adelaide, a 500-level event, just months after her breakthrough in Paris. She recorded a historic 37-match winning streak in the spring of 2022 -- which included the titles at Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and the French Open -- and clinched the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in April of that year, following the unexpected retirement of Ashleigh Barty. Her winning streak was stopped in the third round of Wimbledon, but she won the US Open by year's end.
Swiatek held the top ranking for 75 weeks. After failing to defend her US Open title in 2023, she fell to No. 2 briefly, and Sabalenka took No. 1, but she reclaimed it just eight weeks later. The 2024 season was looking to be equally dominant for Swiatek, as she won four of the year's first six 1000-level titles and then was victorious again at the French Open.
"She's No. 1. I would say she's really good in every asset of the game," Sabalenka said after losing to her in the Italian Open final last year.
But after hoisting her fifth major trophy, and fourth at Roland Garros, Swiatek struggled, by her standards anyway. The clear favorite for the 2024 Olympics (held at Roland Garros), Swiatek walked away with the bronze after being upset in the semifinals. She then fell in the quarterfinals at the US Open. She parted ways with her longtime coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and began working with Wim Fissette soon after. Swiatek received a one-month suspension in November after testing positive for a banned substance.
In that time -- a near eternity for a player of her caliber -- she hadn't won another title. All eyes were on her at the 2025 French Open to see if she could turn things around. When she didn't, her ranking fell to a stunning No. 8.
It seemed unlikely that Wimbledon and the grass would be much better, as she had never fared well on the surface or at the tournament.
Grass is the shortest portion of the annual tennis calendar, and for the three previous years, Swiatek had won the French Open, only about three weeks before the start of Wimbledon. That left a very short window to prepare for grass.
"I think the toughest transition is [on] the grass," Chris Evert, the 18-time major champion and ESPN analyst, said ahead of Wimbledon. "The clay you've got five weeks [of] tournaments [on] the red clay. You can really get used to playing on clay by the time the French Open comes around, but Wimbledon is really tough, especially for players who do well at the French."
Evert mentioned Coco Gauff as a recent example. The 2025 French Open champion returned to play after a whirlwind media tour for just one warmup tournament in Berlin and lost in her opening match. She then was upset in the first round at Wimbledon.
In addition to the quick turnaround, clay and grass surfaces are radically different. Even some of the most seasoned veterans struggle in the transition between the two.
"Those two surfaces, red clay and grass, are polar opposites, and you need to make a lot of adjustments," Evert added. "The court is different. Your positioning is different. You've got to shorten your strokes. You've got to always be moving into the net if you can. There are just so many things different on the clay that you have to think of and make adjustments."
Prior to this year, Swiatek's best result at Wimbledon had been a quarterfinal appearance in 2023. In her limited grass tournament appearances during that time -- she played in just three main draws outside of Wimbledon since turning professional -- she reached just one semifinal, also in 2023 at Bad Homburg.
But one year, one tournament, even one match, can change everything. Swiatek had said she was no longer focused on points or her ranking following her French Open exit, and said she would be turning her attention to the grass almost immediately.
"Hopefully we're going to have some decent kind of little preseason on grass, because it's always been pretty hard to have that, especially when I want to be a little bit home," Swiatek said last month. "But I don't feel like I need to be home right now, so maybe I'll go somewhere in Europe and practice."
Swiatek returned to competition a little less than three weeks later at Bad Homburg. She advanced to her first-ever grass final behind wins over two-time major champion Victoria Azarenka in the round of 16 and with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over 2024 Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini in the semifinals. She ultimately lost to Jessica Pegula for the title, but arrived to the All England Club with momentum on her side and, as she told reporters the next day, "a lot of confidence."
But there were far fewer expectations for Swiatek at Wimbledon than at the French Open, and Sabalenka was the overwhelming favorite to win. That all seemed to suit Swiatek.
While many of her top-ranked peers, including No. 2 Gauff and No. 3 Pegula, fell early in the upset-riddled opening rounds, Swiatek was largely in control and seemed to improve with every match. En route to the final, she dropped just one set (to American Caty McNally, whom she had won the junior French Open doubles title with in 2018) and was propelled by her strong serve, losing only six service games in her first six matches. She routed Belinda Bencic, 6-2, 6-0, in the semifinals on Thursday.
"I just definitely felt like she was completely on fire," Bencic later said. "I will, of course, watch the match again and see also with my team what I could have done differently, but maybe I would have had to play my absolutely best tennis of my life and risk every shot to beat her today the way she played."
Pasta with strawberries 🍓@iga_swiatek's favourite meal is an interesting one 😂#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/FJNdwRBE8x
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2025
Along the way, Swiatek seemed to be having fun. She went viral for her pasta-and-strawberries dish and for her affinity for the Wimbledon towels. She was hilariously spotted throughout the tournament hoarding as many as she could after matches, even good-naturedly putting her finger over her lip to the camera as if to keep it a secret when she put one in her bag after her quarterfinal win.
On Saturday during the final, she had her most dominant performance yet. Swiatek broke Anisimova in the opening game, and there was little doubt the rest of the way. She won the first set in 25 minutes and held Anisimova to just nine points. It was just the third women's major final, and second in the Open era, to feature a 6-0, 6-0 score. It had only previously happened at Wimbledon in 1911.
When asked by ESPN's Mary Joe Fernandez after the match to explain what she had just achieved, Swiatek said she didn't think she could.
Come to Wimbledon for the tennis? Maybe.
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 3, 2025
Come to Wimbledon to add to the towel collection? Absolutely.
Iga, we understand. We get it. 😉#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/5sCNJpZADI
"I was really competing throughout the whole two weeks," Swiatek said. "No matter what happened before the season, I just trusted the process and the things that my coach wanted me to do on grass. So it was all pretty simple what I wanted to do on the court.
"I think I was serving great and I just leaned on that. Had a lot of confidence on every match and, and this happened. So it's all pretty surreal and crazy. I can't explain that, but I'm super happy and I'll enjoy the next days for sure."
Her 35 total games lost throughout the tournament were the fewest by any women's champion at Wimbledon since Martina Navratilova in 1990.
AFTER AN EMOTIONAL hug with Anisimova at the net at the match's conclusion, Swiatek ran over to her box to celebrate with her team. Despite the score and the lopsided contest, Swiatek appeared to be in disbelief. When she was back on the court ahead of the trophy ceremony, she emphatically shook her head when it was placed in her hands as she stared back up at those in the box.
With the Wimbledon trophy, Swiatek is now just one major title behind Venus Williams for the most among active players on the WTA Tour. She will now be back up to No. 3 in the latest rankings.
While she had never been much of a factor at Wimbledon before, Swiatek found a way to win her perhaps unlikeliest of major titles, at perhaps the unlikeliest time in her young career. She still wouldn't call herself a grass-court specialist Saturday and admitted she didn't know what to expect going into the final.
"I kind of just wanted to enjoy the moment because with my previous [Wimbledon] results, I wasn't sure if I'm going to have another chance," Swiatek told Fernandez. "I still felt like an underdog and I wanted to really just soak in every minute of being on Centre Court and appreciating already what I did at this tournament, but on the other hand, going for more and being brave."
She may have been under the radar at the tournament, and even slightly unsure of herself, but that won't happen again. Nor will she be discounted at any tournament in the near future. Throughout the fortnight, she left little doubt about her ability and her willingness to adapt and grow as a player, regardless of surface. In doing so, she solidified her status as an all-surface player and reclaimed her status among the game's best. Swiatek is now once again on top of the tennis world.
Just over five weeks ago, Swiatek left Roland Garros disappointed and dejected. She hadn't won the title. Questions about her future and her recent inability to win titles swirled.
But on Saturday, as she stood on Centre Court with the admiring eyes of more than 14,000 fans and Catherine, the Princess of Wales, on her, she wondered if it was one of the best things that could have happened to her career. What comes next for Swiatek no one knows, but on Saturday, all felt right for her.
"I don't really care what's going to happen," Swiatek said about the rest of the season. "It's hard to compare [this title] to the other Grand Slams, but yeah, I feel like I'm just going to enjoy it and enjoy the way I felt on the court over the past few weeks. There were a lot of people, especially back home, [who] kind of doubted me and not making it easy for me to do my job, and I mean, the expectations and everything.
"So I hope I prove to everybody that they should just kind of leave me alone, let me do my work, let me focus on myself, and I'll have great performances as I did today."