IGA Swiatek ruthlessly took advantage of Amanda Anisimova’s nerves to win her maiden Wimbledon title and inflict the heaviest women’s final defeat at the All England Club in more than a century.
Both players were appearing in their first Wimbledon final but Poland’s Swiatek looked more assured from the very start as she stormed to a 6-0 6-0 victory over the American in just 57 minutes to win a sixth Grand Slam title.
No woman had won a Wimbledon final with a double bagel – the name given to a victory without dropping a game – since Dorothea Lambert Chambers in 1911.
“It seems super surreal,” said 24-year-old Swiatek, whose five previous major titles came on clay or hard courts and who has won every Slam final she has contested.
“Honestly, I didn’t even dream of winning Wimbledon because it was way too far.
“I feel like I’m an experienced player, having won other Slams, but I didn’t expect this.”
Eighth seed Swiatek drew on all of her greater experience to race through the first set in just 25 minutes.
Anisimova, just three months younger than Swiatek, looked tense from the very start and made a flurry of errors in an opener where she won just nine points.
Despite a sympathetic Centre Court crowd willing her on, things did not improve in the second set for the 13th seed.
A total of 28 unforced errors, plus five double faults, starkly illustrated Anisimova’s struggles.
Fighting back the tears as she addressed the crowd, Anisimova said: “It’s been an incredible fortnight for me – even though I ran out of gas.
“I wish I could have put on a better performance for you today.”
Swiatek becomes an all-court great
If Swiatek had not already proved she should be ranked among the greats of the game, she has certainly done so now.
Mastering a surface considered her weakest – even though she won the Wimbledon junior title in 2018 – has added further credibility to her case.
Swiatek has become the youngest woman since 23-time champion Serena Williams in 2002 to win Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces.
A sixth major takes her clear of Maria Sharapova and Martina Hingis, with only a total of 10 women now having won more in the Open era.
Swiatek became known as the ‘Queen of Clay’ after winning four French Open titles in five years, while her two-year reign as the world number one – ended by Aryna Sabalenka last year – was underpinned by consistent success on the hard courts.
Grass was the surface she had not cracked.
Before this triumph, Swiatek had made the second week at the All England Club only once, when she reached the quarter-finals in 2023.
Losing in this year’s Roland Garros semi-finals – early by her previous standards – meant she had longer to prepare on the surface, helping her to quickly readjust and improve her confidence and game.
Anisimova’s struggles meant Swiatek was not fully tested. Nevertheless, the weight and depth of the Pole’s ball provided constant pressure which her opponent could not deal with.