Wimbledon: Defending champion Iga Swiatek survives major Taylor Townsend scare

Iga Swiatek survived a scare to start her Wimbledon title defence with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 win over American world number 79 Taylor Townsend on Tuesday.

Swiatek suffered a second-set wobble that left her in danger of becoming only the third reigning female Wimbledon champion to lose in the first round in the Open-era. But the world No 3, a six-time Grand Slam champion, steadied her nerves in the deciding set, surviving a 21-minute first game before securing the breaks of serve that edged her into the second round.

The visibly emotional Swiatek buried her head in a towel after converting match point.

The 25-year-old Pole hasn’t reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam in her last three attempts since winning Wimbledon last year, when she bounced back after losing her French Open crown to romp to a maiden grass-court title. However, she was far from her best 12 months on against Townsend, who was cheered on courtside by Japanese star Naomi Osaka.

Swiatek committed 16 unforced errors in a poor second set before clawing her way back in the tense decider.

Townsend’s power-hitting pushed Swiatek to the brink of another disappointment at the majors. But the 30-year-old has never been past the Wimbledon second round, and Swiatek did just enough to set up a last-64 clash against former world No 1 and 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.

“It was a tough couple of weeks. A season when not everything went how I wanted. I don’t think I won any three-set matches this year, so I’m happy I could do it,” Swiatek said, after avoiding what would have been only the second first-round Grand Slam defeat of her career.

“Obviously, it means a lot to be the defending champion here. In the end, I kept my composure. I knew I needed to be solid.”

Elsewhere in the women’s draw, Amanda Anisimova began her bid to go one better than last year — when she lost the final 6-0, 6-0 to Swiatek — by cruising to a straight-sets win against Lina Gjorcheska, the first North Macedonian to ever qualify for a Grand Slam.

After 10 British players were knocked out on Monday, Katie Swan gave the host nation their first win of the tournament by beating Irina-Camelia Begu, although Katie Boulter was knocked out by Grand Slam debutant Tyra Caterina Grant of Italy.

World No 2 Elena Rybakina had to dig deep to reach the Wimbledon second round with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win against France’s Lois Boisson.

Rybakina, who won Wimbledon in 2022, is looking to clinch her second Grand Slam crown this year after her triumph at the Australian Open in January, and will face Caty McNally or Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the second round. Former finalist Jasmine Paolini also advanced, fighting back from losing the first set 6-0 to defeat Robin Montgomery.

Meanwhile, in the men’s draw, American sixth seed Taylor Fritz eased past Dusan Lajovic in straight sets, while fifth seed Alex de Minaur also wasted little time in beating Roman Andres Burruchaga. But American fourth seed Ben Shelton was not so lucky.

The 23-year old was dumped out in the first round by world No 140 Otto Virtanen of Finland after a marathon 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8/10), 6-2, 7-6 (11/9) defeat that lasted four hours and 21 minutes.  |  AFP