‘This Is a Nightmare for Iga Swiatek’ – Coco Gauff Embarrassment Flashes Back for Serena Williams’ Ex-coach With Sofia Kenin in Wimbledon Draw

It was the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. Fresh from a quarterfinal appearance at the French Open against Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff was looking to dig deep at the Wimbledon Championships. However, it wasn’t meant to be as she went down fighting against her compatriot, Sofia Kenin, in the opening round of the tournament. It was one of the biggest upsets early on in the tournament, ending the young American’s dream. As Sofia gets set to repeat this upset this year, the victim could be Iga Swiatek, believes Serena Williams’ ex-coach, Rennae Stubbs.

Yesterday’s Wimbledon draw saw top seed Iga Swiatek face off against Sofia Kenin in the first round. Rennae Stubbs, likely remembering Kenin’s past upset victory, suggests Kenin could pose a serious challenge to Swiatek, perhaps even causing another surprise. During a conversation on this matter in her Racquet’s Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, Serena Williams’ ex-coach said, “She has the luck of playing the Number 1 seed and I’m telling you now, if there’s an upset, it could be this one.” Well statistics paints quite an opposite picture!

While they’ve only met twice, Iga Swiatek has a perfect record against Sofia Kenin. In their most recent clash at the 2024 Australian Open, Swiatek, the world number one, had to fight hard for a 7-6(2), 6-2 victory in the first round. This win came four years after their first encounter, the 2020 French Open final, where a then-unseeded Swiatek stunned the world by defeating the 4th seeded Kenin in straight sets to claim her first Grand Slam title. Highlighting how the two are yet to meet on grass, Stubbs added, “and I know Iga has beaten her both times they’ve played, they’ve only played in Grand Slams which is ridiculous. Iga has beaten her both times in straight sets but on grass, this is a nightmare for Iga Swiatek.”

Fresh off her most lopsided French Open final in 17 years, ceding a grand total of three games against an overmatched opponent to claim a third consecutive title in Paris, Iga Swiatek, recently, downplayed the idea of a “perfect” performance. A self-described “perfectionist”, she now sets her sights on Wimbledon, the one Grand Slam where she hasn’t reached the semifinals. “Overall, tennis is different on grass,” said Swiatek, who was a junior champion at the All England Club in 2018. “I’ll just see and I’ll work hard to play better there.” The World No. 1 is of the firm belief that “competing every year at Wimbledon and practicing these couple of weeks makes you progress” on grass.

Since Iga has a less success rate on Grass compared to Clay and Hard courts, she was snubbed for the likes of Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina by a tennis bigwig, who made the predictions for the upcoming grass-court Grand Slam event.

Greg Rusedski believes Coco Gauff will be ‘licking her lips’ against Iga Swiatek

Last week, predictions for the Wimbledon Championships were made on the Tennis Channel Inside-In podcast. While Swiatek is the top seed in the tournament, the likes of Gauff and Rybakina have a good record on grass and prefer this surface. As a result, Greg Rusedski picked them over Swiatek, while predicting the next Wimbledon champion.

He mentioned, “For Coco, let’s be honest, on the grass against Iga, she’s licking her lips. She said to herself: ‘Now is the time or never for me to start this rivalry.’ I think Brad Gilbert did a great job with her, and I think they’re probably saying, ‘Okay, we didn’t play at our best in the French Open semifinals. But now we have Wimbledon coming, this is our chance after winning the US Open last year.’”

Moreover, Gauff and Rybakina have been handed a fairly easier draw than Swiatek, who faces Kenin upfront. As a result, it won’t be a cakewalk for Swiatek to lift back-to-back Grand Slam titles in Paris and Wimbledon, with the likes of Gauff and Rybakina knocking on the door.