Iga Swiatek, merciless champion in a historic final

Iga Swiatek is back to being Iga Swiatek, the dominant force on the circuit in recent years, who had almost disappeared last season due to pressure and self-imposed demands. She shines again at a Grand Slam, and at Wimbledon, where she had never triumphed, because she has never stopped striving for improvement. Here, where she once paled, she manages to revive herself and achieve her fantastic peak in major tournaments: sixth final, sixth title. A major triumph due to the setting and the impact, and because she also overcomes that silent rival who had been tying her down since the middle of last year.

She was making her debut in this final, along with Amanda Anisimova, 23 years old and ranked 12th in the world, who has gradually conquered another level as well. The 2017 US Open junior champion, she reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2019, but suffered the vertigo of the elite and the painful sudden loss of her father. She first took refuge in tennis, but in 2022 she decided to stop; eight months off the circuit to live a normal life and regain her appetite. Upon her return, in early 2024, she won the WTA 1000 in Doha and her first major final, although all the nerves and pressure of an entire country expecting a Grand Slam title at Wimbledon suddenly weighed on her.

They've been waiting for it since Serena Williams was crowned at the Cathedral in 2016, but her compatriot Anisimova had no chance against her internal pressure and an imperial Swiatek on the other side of the net.

It was the Swiatek who overwhelmed in her matches, who never stopped, who seemed to enter a trance, her gaze fixed on the ball and on victory. With no apparent loopholes or openings for her opponent to squeeze through. A master of winning sets by 6-0 (83 with these two), she offered Anisimova no respite in 25 minutes of uncontested superiority.

Everything was going the Pole's way, a wall of stones from the baseline, and she pounded away relentlessly from side to side. Anisimova found herself caught in a cyclone that bombarded her with debris, and she couldn't even respond to a ball on the spot. Frustration doubled her nervousness, unable to steady her hand on either her serve or her rallies. She made 16 unforced errors, resulting in a 6-0 first set.

The last Wimbledon final was won by Garbiñe Muguruza against Venus Williams (present on court) in 2017 (7-5, 6-0). But Swiatek, going about her business, ignored the crowd's demands for a closer final. The crowd was already watching the Wimbledon final with the fewest games in the Open Era: Billie Jean King defeated Evonne Goolagong 6-0, 6-1 in 1975; and at Roland Garros in 1988, Steffi Graf defeated Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0.

Swiatek, who has reached third place in the rankings, seems to have recovered the firm stride that had propelled her to fame at Roland Garros, champion in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 and the US Open 2022. And she does so on a significant occasion, as she is crowned at Wimbledon for the first time with her 100th Grand Slam victory, out of 120 matches.

She lost her way after triumphing in Paris in June 2024, failing to win the gold medal, and from then on, she never found a final. Exhausted by the pressure, by the demands placed on her, as she told this newspaper this past spring, she was also embroiled in a trimetazidine doping case for which she was criticized, like Jannik Sinner, for the way the investigation was conducted and for the ban of barely a month that she served to the letter, in September and December, after the season had already ended.

She forgot all about that with a clean racquet, direct serves, winning returns, a barrage of winners with which she knocked down in a second set also unrepentant with this robotic, precise and exact style that once again put her on the front pages and lifting the biggest trophy.

"Amanda, you have to be proud of these past two weeks. You have the tennis to keep going in the finals," Swiatek congratulated her opponent. "Winning Wimbledon wasn't even a dream for me because I didn't see it as possible. I never expected to win this title, honestly. Stepping onto this court always puts a lot of pressure on me, but this time I felt very comfortable. Despite the ups and downs, the work is paying off. Thank you, team, I wouldn't be here without you," the Pole added.