(Wimbledon) Top seed Iga Swiatek extended her winning streak to 36 by beating Croatian qualifier Jana Fett 6-0, 6-3 in the first round of Wimbledon.
Posted at 11:02
This is the longest winning streak on the women’s circuit since 1997. Martina Hingis had 37 consecutive victories in 1997 before losing in the French Open final.
The first 35 wins in Swiatek’s happy streak have come on hard or clay courts.
After dominating early in the match, Swiatek trailed 3-1 in the second set before she turned the tide and won the next five games. She saved five break points to avoid going down 4-1.
The 21-year-old Polish was playing her first match since her victory at Roland-Garros earlier this month.
Later Tuesday, Serena Williams will make her singles return. His last game was played at the All England Club a year ago. She was then injured in her first-round duel.
The holder of 23 Grand Slam titles will dispute the victory with the French Harmony Tan on the Central.
In other matches, the Czech ranked 13e Barbora Krejcikova defeated Belgium’s Maryna Zanevska 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Other seeds who also won in the first round include No. 4 Paula Badosa, No. 5 Maria Sakkari, No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko, as well as No. 33 Zhang Shuai.
On the other hand, the Olympic champion and 14e Seeded Swiss Belinda Bencic lost 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to China’s Wang Qiang. Seeds No. 18, Jil Teichmann, No. 20, Amanda Anisimova, and No. 27, Yulia Putintseva also met the same fate.
On the men’s side, Grigor Dimitrov withdrew from his first-round match against American Steve Johnson after being visited by an athletic therapist for a leg injury.
The 18e seed had won the first set 6-4, but trailed 5-2 in the second. The 31-year-old Bulgarian then stopped playing on Court No. 2.
Reilly Opelka, ranked 15eAlex de Minaur, 19eJenson Brooksby, 29e and Sebastian Baez, 31ealso reached the second round.
Spaniard Rafale Nadal, winner of 22 Grand Slam tournaments, will later enter the competition against Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo.