IGA SWIATEK STARTED her title defence with a nervy win at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
The reigning champion recovered from a second-set blip to battle past Taylor Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.
Last year, she bounced back after losing her French Open crown by romping to a maiden Wimbledon title, but she was far from her best 12 months on against Townsend.
The Pole made 16 unforced errors in a poor second set, but managed to take a tense decider to set up a second-round meeting with former world number one Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.
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“I don’t think I’ve won any three-set match this year, so happy to do it here as it means a lot to be opening the court here as defending champion,” said third seed Swiatek.
Second seed Elena Rybakina, who could take the world-number-one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka next week, also had to dig deep to battle past 2025 French Open semi-finalist Lois Boisson in three sets.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion will next face the United States’ Caty McNally for a last-32 berth.
Amanda Anisimova began her bid to go one better than last year, when she lost the final 6-0, 6-0 to Swiatek, cruising to a straight-sets win on Tuesday against Lina Gjorcheska of North Macedonia.
- Zverev battles through -
French Open champion Alexander Zverev came through a tricky first-round test against Belgian youngster Alexander Blockx with a 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/0) victory.
The German second seed, who took advantage of the shock early exits of Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic to clinch his long-awaited maiden major title at Roland Garros, is hoping to get past the last 16 at Wimbledon for the first time.
US fourth seed Ben Shelton was dumped out by Finland’s Otto Virtanen, missing a match point before losing 11/9 in a fifth-set tie-break.
American sixth seed Taylor Fritz, who reached the semi-finals last year, and fifth seed Alex de Minaur both progressed in straight sets.
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Swiatek, Rybakina survive scares at Wimbledon
IGA SWIATEK STARTED her title defence with a nervy win at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
The reigning champion recovered from a second-set blip to battle past Taylor Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.
Last year, she bounced back after losing her French Open crown by romping to a maiden Wimbledon title, but she was far from her best 12 months on against Townsend.
The Pole made 16 unforced errors in a poor second set, but managed to take a tense decider to set up a second-round meeting with former world number one Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.
“I don’t think I’ve won any three-set match this year, so happy to do it here as it means a lot to be opening the court here as defending champion,” said third seed Swiatek.
Second seed Elena Rybakina, who could take the world-number-one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka next week, also had to dig deep to battle past 2025 French Open semi-finalist Lois Boisson in three sets.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion will next face the United States’ Caty McNally for a last-32 berth.
Amanda Anisimova began her bid to go one better than last year, when she lost the final 6-0, 6-0 to Swiatek, cruising to a straight-sets win on Tuesday against Lina Gjorcheska of North Macedonia.
- Zverev battles through -
French Open champion Alexander Zverev came through a tricky first-round test against Belgian youngster Alexander Blockx with a 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/0) victory.
The German second seed, who took advantage of the shock early exits of Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic to clinch his long-awaited maiden major title at Roland Garros, is hoping to get past the last 16 at Wimbledon for the first time.
US fourth seed Ben Shelton was dumped out by Finland’s Otto Virtanen, missing a match point before losing 11/9 in a fifth-set tie-break.
American sixth seed Taylor Fritz, who reached the semi-finals last year, and fifth seed Alex de Minaur both progressed in straight sets.
– © AFP 2026
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