(Reuters) – World number one Iga Swiatek is on a mission to improve her modest record on grasscourts and said on Saturday that she had gone back to basics in the buildup to Wimbledon, which starts on Monday.
Swiatek won the U.S. Open in 2022 and last month secured her second consecutive French Open crown. But while the 22-year-old has had success on hardcourts and clay, she is yet to win a tournament on grass and has yet to get past the round of 16 at Wimbledon.
The Pole’s overall win-loss record on the slick surface is 9-5, and she acknowledged that she had to do better to be counted among the game’s great players.
“I believe the best players, they can play on all surfaces. I want to become that kind of player who can play well on grass as well and feel comfortable there,” Swiatek, who meets China’s Zhu Lin in the first round, told reporters.
“I’m doing my best to just work on my skills. Last year I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job with my coach in terms of my touch and getting back slices and also playing the slice.
“This year I feel like we had more time to kind of focus on the basics, more time to also play matches. Yeah, I’m using that time as much as possible.”
Swiatek warmed up for the year’s third major with a hard-fought win over Tatjana Maria before comfortably beating Jil Teichmann and Anna Blinkova at Bad Homburg but withdrew before the semi-finals due to fever and possible food poisoning.
She said she expected to be fine come Monday when Wimbledon begins and added that she was working on perfecting her footwork.
“That’s where my strength is on other surfaces,” Swiatek said. “For sure, sliding is tricky here, so you have to slow down and stop before the shot in a different way.
“Yeah, I feel like if you have time to adjust to the surface and then use your intuition in matches… I was able to do that a little bit in Bad Homburg. I think it’s going to be fine.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
