By Marc McGowan
Iga’s Bakery has never been a pleasant place for her opponents – and now she’s expanded to the All England club.
Polish star Iga Swiatek’s habit of handing out bagels and breadsticks to her hapless rivals continued in Saturday’s final as she sealed her graduation from grasscourt underachiever to first-time Wimbledon champion with a historic 6-0, 6-0 demolition of American Amanda Anisimova.
Poland’s Iga Swiatek holds the trophy after beating Amanda Anisimova to win the women’s singles final.Credit: AP
The Princess of Wales presented the Venus Rosewater Dish to Swiatek after what was the most lopsided Wimbledon final in 114 years.
You have to go back to 1911 to find a double-bagel scoreline in a women’s final at the grasscourt major, when Dorothy Lambert Chambers achieved that against fellow Brit Dora Boothby to claim the fifth of her seven titles.
It was just the second double bagel in a grand slam final in the Open Era, and the first since Steffi Graf’s 6-0, 6-0 victory over Natasha Zvereva in barely half an hour at Roland-Garros in 1988.
Swiatek, who also conceded only two games in the semi-finals against Belinda Bencic, completed her extraordinary performance with a fittingly brilliant inside-out backhand winner that nipped the sideline before dropping her racquet in disbelief and slumping to the court.
She is one of the sport’s greatest and most ruthless frontrunners, and her controlled aggression and relentlessness were a lethal combination against Anisimova’s jangling nerves.
Aussie’s unlikely run ends in doubles final
Rinky Hijikata was unable to double his grand slam title tally, but still described playing on Wimbledon’s centre court as a “dream come true”.
Hijikata and Dutch partner David Pel, alternates who had never spoken to each other before this tournament, started slowly in Saturday’s men’s doubles final, but threatened to extend the match to a deciding set before losing 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) to Brits Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash.
They are the first all-British pair to win the men’s doubles title since 1936, but it is the third straight Wimbledon where at least one Brit has featured in the winning team.
Hijikata, who also made the second round of the singles, was arguably the best player on the court, particularly in the second set. But nerves appeared to get the better of Pel, who served six double faults and dropped serve three times.
Pel’s last double fault - which landed halfway up the net - handed Glasspool and Cash a crucial mini-break in the second-set tie-breaker, which gave them a 5-3 lead that they never relinquished.
It was still an incredible tournament for the Hijikata-Pel combination, who saved match points in their first- and second-round wins and in a dramatic semi-final, which they celebrated with rare gusto.
“It’s been a crazy ride,” Hijikata said.
“It’s been so much fun playing with David. He brought such a great energy on the court, and it’s a dream come true to play on centre court. I’m shattered, but it was a lot of fun.”
Hijikata won the 2023 Australian Open doubles title with fellow Australian Jason Kubler.
“It seems super surreal,” Swiatek said.
“Honestly, I didn’t even dream [this would happen as a child] because, for me, it was way too far. I feel like I’m already an experienced player after winning the slams before, but I never really expected this one.
Disappointment: Amanda Anisimova cries after losing the women’s singles final match.Credit: AP
“I feel like tennis keeps surprising me, and I keep surprising myself. I’m really happy with the whole process, how it looked like from the first day we stepped on a grass court. I feel like we did everything for it to go in that direction, without expecting it – just working really hard.
“It means a lot, and it gives me a lot of experience. I’m just happy.”
In a cruel twist of fate, 13th-seeded Anisimova – who was contesting her maiden grand slam final – won her first-round match 6-0, 6-0 over Yulia Putintseva.
The 23-year-old never got going in the final, struggling to land first serves, fluffing ball tosses and even misfiring on her trusty backhand. She had more unforced errors (14) than points won (nine) at the end of the first set.
Anisimova committed 28 unforced errors in total against only eight winners as she fell well short of the impressive form she displayed in the rest of the fortnight, including outlasting world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals.
She led 40-15 in the third game of the match, but eventually double-faulted to lose an eight-minute game.
The final may have been different, or at least far more competitive, if Anisimova had steadied and secured a service hold right there, but instead she became visibly and audibly frustrated as she came to terms with the nightmare that was playing out in front of thousands on centre court and many more beyond.
Anisimova, who admitted to being “a bit frozen” with nerves, wiped tears away as she accepted her runners-up plate, then sobbed before her on-court interview, and again as she mentioned her mother, Olga, who flew in to London on the day of the final.
Iga Swiatek plays a forehand against Amanda Anisimova in the final.Credit: Getty Images
“To my pretty small box over there … it’s been so unbelievable to experience this with you all. You guys were that extra motivation and inspiration I needed to keep pushing me forward,” Anisimova said.
“You always believed in me. My mum flew in this morning, and I definitely wouldn’t be standing here [without her]. My mum’s put in more work than I have. My mum is the most selfless person I know, and she’s done everything to get me to this point in my life.
“Thank you for being here and breaking the superstition of flying in. You’re definitely not why I lost today, so I’m happy I get to share this moment with you, and you get to be here and witness this in person.
“Lastly, I know I didn’t have enough today, but I’m going to keep doing the work, and I hope to be back here one day.”
It was a brutal afternoon for Anisimova, but a legacy-changing one for Swiatek, who had never advanced beyond the quarter-finals at SW19 before this fortnight. This is her sixth major title at 24 years of age, to go with her four at Roland-Garros and 2022 US Open triumph.
The Australian Open, where she has twice lost in the semi-finals, including this year, is the final frontier for the former world No.1.
Swiatek spoke during the tournament about how the Slazenger ball was finally “listening” to her in practice on the grass – and that has translated to the match court, where she dropped just one set en route to the Wimbledon title.
The Pole had not enjoyed her usual level of dominance since her one-month ban expired in December for testing positive to banned substance trimetazidine. Swiatek successfully argued that the low traces of TMZ in her system owed to contamination of her melatonin medication, which she takes to ward off jet lag.
Swiatek won the most lopsided Wimbledon singles final in 114 years.Credit: Getty Images
She hired her new coach, Wim Fissette, during that period, a decision that came under some criticism during her relative struggles in the months since.
That Swiatek bounced back to her best at Wimbledon for her first title of the year, and first major championship since Roland-Garros in 2024, is another remarkable and unlikely part of her journey.
She typically dominates the clay-court season like few before her, but repeatedly fell short this year after reaching the latter stages as her ranking tumbled to an unfamiliar No.8.
“The thing is that we as public people and as athletes, we can’t really react to everything that’s going on. We’ve got to focus on ourselves,” Swiatek said.
“Obviously, sometimes it’s easier to do that, sometimes it’s harder. For sure, the past months, how the media sometimes describe me, and I’ve got to say, unfortunately, Polish media, how they treated me and my team, it wasn’t really pleasant.
“I hope they will just leave me alone and let me do my job because, obviously, you can see that we know what we are doing, and I have the best people around me. I have already proved a lot.
“I know people want more and more, but it’s my own process and my own life and my own career. Hopefully, I’m going to have a freedom from them, as well, to let me do my job the way I want it.”
Swiatek’s run to the Bad Homburg final, in Germany, the week before Wimbledon started seemed a significant breakthrough for her on grass, and so it proved, as her confidence and output improved the longer the tournament went.
She will be back at No.3 in the rankings on Monday and is poised to again challenge Aryna Sabalenka as the WTA Tour’s best player.
Marc McGowan travelled to Wimbledon with the assistance of Tennis Australia.
Watch all the action from Wimbledon live & on-demand on Stan Sport, with Centre Court in 4K. Also available live and free on the 9Network and streaming on 9Now.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.