2022 Wimbledon: Iga Swiatek progresses after 37th straight win
Women's singles world number one Iga Swiatek has moved into the third round of the 2022 Wimbledon on Friday. The Polish international beat Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove in three sets. With this victory, Swiatek has now registered 37 straight wins. In the first round, she defeated Jana Fett 6-0, 6-3 to break Venus Williams' record (35) for the most consecutive match wins (36) this century.
Swiatek served five aces compared to two from her opponent. However, Kerkhova made eight double faults. Swiatek converted four of the seven break points and Kerkhova converted three out of five. In total, Swiatek won 96 points.
Swiatek has won 37 straight matches, since her round of 16 loss at the Dubai Tennis Championships in February. Swiatek won five matches in Qatar before winning six matches each in Indian Wells and Miami. She then won both her matches for Poland at the Billie Jean King Cup. She won four matches at Stuttgart Open, five in Rome, and seven at Roland Garros.
With this win on Friday, Swiatek has also surpassed Monica Seles's 36-match winning streak from 1990. As per WTA., the second-round win has also seen her tie Martina Hingis's season-opening 37-match winning streak in 1997.
In this run of 37 straight wins, Swiatek has won six successive titles. Swiatek started her dominating run of form by winning the Qatar Open. She claimed the Indian Wells title, dropping three sets in total. The Miami Open and Stuttgart Open trophies followed suit as Swiatek dropped one set across both tournaments. She claimed the Italian Open and 2022 French Open next.
Swiatek has a 21-2 record at Roland Garros, besides 12-4 at AO, 5-2 at Wimbledon, and 6-3 at US Open. Overall, her count in Slams is 44-11. In 2022, Swiatek has a 46-3 win-loss record. This was the first career meeting between Swiatek and Kerkhove.
Eastbourne International champion Petra Kvitova overcame Ana Bogdan 6-1, 7-6. Fourth seed Paula Badosa swept aside Irina Bara 6-3, 6-2. 17th seed Elena Rybakina downed Bianca Andreescu 6-4, 7-6. Katie Boulter stunned Karolina Pliskova 3,6, 7-6, 6-4. Eighth seed Jessica Pegula beat Harriet Dart 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Alize Cornet beat Claire Liu 6-3, 6-3 and 13th seed Barbora Krejcikova downed Viktorija Golubic 6-3, 6-4.
As per Opta, Qinwen Zheng became the first Chinese female player to reach the 3rd round at Wimbledon before turning 19. Prior to her, the youngest player from China to reach the third round was Shuai Peng in 2006 at 20 years old.
