London, (Asian independent) World No.1 and four-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek raced into the Ladies’ Singles second round at Wimbledon here, starting her campaign for her maiden title in the grass-court major with a straight sets win on Monday.
The 22-year-old from Poland, whose best performance at Wimbledon is a fourth-round appearance in 2021, defeated China’s Lin Zhu 6-1, 6-3 in 81 minutes at No.1 Court.
Two more top-10 players, Jessica Pegula of the United States, seeded fourth, and Caroline Garcia of France, the fifth seed, also reached the second round with contrasting wins. Pegula needed 2 hours and 20 minutes to overcome compatriot Lauren Davis 6-2, 6-7(8), 6-3 while Garcia beat another American player, Katie Volynets, 6-4, 6-3 on No.3 Court.
The two-time semifinalist Victoria Azarenka made a winning return to action with a hard-fought win against Yue Yuan of China. Belarusian Azarenka, who reached the last-four stage here in 2011 and 2012, had missed out on Wimbledon last year due to the ban on players from Russia and Belarus due to the war in Ukraine. On Monday, she advanced with a 6-4, 5-7,6-4 win over the 24-year-old Chinese.
Swiatek, who recently won her first grass court event at Queen’s Club, lifted the most recent of her four Grand Slam trophies at Roland-Garros just over three weeks ago, adding to those she had already collected in Paris in 2020 and 2022.
The 22-year-old added to her Slam collection as last year’s US Open champion.
Swiatek, who claimed the Wimbledon girls’ title in 2018, was impressive on Wimbledon’s No.1 Court as she managed the danger that 29-year-old Zhu presented.
At world No.34, Zhu is the highest-ranked unseeded player in the ladies’ draw at Wimbledon, with her confidence growing this season after winning her first WTA singles title at Hua Hin in February. Earlier, she’d reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time at the Australian Open.
It was all the more impressive then, as Swiatek dominated their first career match from the earliest stages. She struck 22 winners as compared to 7 by Zhu. Though there was nothing much difference in unforced errors as Swiatek had 16 while her Chinese opponent had 17, had 61% first serve in while Zhu made 57 per cent.
Swiatek now faces either Sara Sorribes Tormo or Martina Trevisan in the second round.
