Wimbledon 2024: Destiny Wounds Up Nicely for Iga Swiatek to Replicate Rafael Nadal’s Grass-Court Feat

Fans are currently busy decoding their picks for the upcoming grass court major event. Iga Swiatek, who recently proved her potential by securing another title at Roland Garros, is the choice of many. Soon after securing her third consecutive and fourth overall French Open title in 2024 by defeating Jasmine Paolini, the fans’ expectation from the ‘Queen of Clay’ knows no limit. While the King of Clay was consistent enough to make a transition from clay to grass, will she be able to do it too?

An X post, surfaced on June 25, 2024, by Talking Tennis, posed this unavoidable scenario for fans. Iga Swiatek, who found her name drawn parallel to that of Rafael Nadal after the recent Roland Garros victory, was introduced with a fact that not only honored her fourth major win on clay but also optimized her chances for the Wimbledon win. “Rafael Nadal won his first Wimbledon after having won four French Open titles Iga Swiatek has just won her fourth title on the French dirt,” the post said, drawing a high bar for the ‘Queen’ of clay to match the ‘King’ of clay.

It was back in 2008 when Rafael Nadal secured his fourth Roland Garros victory. The legend defeated Roger Federer in a three-setter showdown to create history by winning four titles in a row, starting from the year 2005. Nadal continued his dominance and took down Roger Federer once again in 2008 to secure his maiden Wimbledon grass court title.

Iga Swiatek, on the other hand, also secured her fourth Roland Garros victory on clay in 2024. Given this scenario, the anticipation of her winning Wimbledon 2024 is all that fans can think of. But, what is the current World number 1 WTA star thinking? “The balls are different. Overall tennis is different on grass. I’ll just see and I’ll work hard to play better there. Last year’s result was pretty nice. I feel like every year it’s easier for me to adapt to grass,” – said Swiatek in a recent interview.

Well, looks like Swiatek is gearing up pretty well to face this “huge challenge.” As a strategy, to make sure she is physically sound before the Grand Slam, Swiatek has skipped participating in any other match before Wimbledon.

Iga Swiatek chose to not appear in any other tournament before Wimbledon

Soon after her legendary win at Roland Garros 2024, the Pole decided to treat her body with the rest that it deserved. While she had a lot on herself by extending her consistency from the tournament in Madrid to Rome to finally Paris, the legend decided to stay away from the build-up grass court events.

“I think to play some matches before Wimbledon is good, but on the other hand, I played basically almost every match in Stuttgart, Madrid, Rome, and here, and so we need to take care of my physicality, as well,” – said Swiatek.

Although she avoided the tournaments in which players like Coco Gauff and others hustled hard to build their grip on the surface, she was firm enough to train herself hard. In a recent post on Instagram, the Pole shared glimpses of her intense training sessions on grass. With a consistently bright smile on her face, she could be seen hitting the grass courts and pushing herself hard with weight training.

Now, it is time to see whether Swiatek, who always follows Nadal as her idol, will be able to make this major breakthrough or not!