Iga Swiatek’s sweet Wimbledon victory — Quotes from SW19
By Joey Dillon
The IX: Tennis Tuesday with Joey Dillon, July 15, 2025
Howdy, y’all and Happy Tennis Tuesday! While my favorite part of the year — the summer North American hardcourt swing — is about to commence, that means we’ve officially wrapped Wimbledon. Like I do with every major, instead of your normal column, I’ll recap the year’s third Grand Slam with my own Parting Thoughts.
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To start things off, Iga Swiatek winning Wimbledon was not on my 2025 bingo card — like, at all. Sure, she won the junior title but on a surface once deemed her Achilles’ heel, the Pole flipped the narrative. After lackluster past Wimbledon performances that included only one quarterfinal finish previously and coming in as the 8th seed, she arrived fresh and fearless. Something was different here and it showed in her 6-0, 6-0, destruction of Amanda Anisimova in the championship match — only the second double bagel in a Grand Slam final in the Open Era. She also only lost 35 games in her seven matches, the fewest since 1990. Her tally—six Grand Slams and six-for-six in finals—echoes legends: Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles. Crucially, she’s now one of only eight Open‑Era women to win majors on clay, hard, and grass and is one Australian Open away from the career Grand Slam.
What a fortnight for Amanda Anisimova, who is making her Top 10 debut following her maiden Grand Slam final. A year ago, she fell in the qualifying tournament after coming back from her mental health break in the beginning of 2024. Her semifinal win over Aryna Sabalenka was career-defining and to me, she’s no longer a case of “will she,” but “when.” While pundits might have the double bagel ready to be written as a trivia fact, the American has been able to keep things in great perspective. Last summer, she reached the Toronto final to really begin her “breakthrough,” so I’m definitely curious to see how things will pan out the rest of the summer.
Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudermetova won their first Grand Slam as a duo — and the first-ever for Kudermetova — with a win over Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko. In mixed doubles, Katerina Siniakova and Sem Verbeek downed Joe Salisbury and Luisa Stefani in two tiebreakers. It was the first mixed doubles Grand Slam final for Siniakova, who has 10 Grand Slams in women’s doubles.
For a second consecutive year, a Slovak captured the Wimbledon Girl’s Singles title. Joining the likes of Iga Swiatek and Belinda Bencic is Mia Pohankova, who defeated American Julieta Pareja to capture the biggest title of her career. In doubles, Kristina Penickova and Vendula Valdmannová captured the crown over Thea Frodin and Pareja.
What a tournament for Belinda Bencic, who made her first Grand Slam semifinal before running into a red-hot Swiatek. The other half of the draw saw Aryna Sabalenka lose another heartbreaker near the end and now 17-3 in Grand Slam matches this year.
We have one more week of European clay court tournaments before we move to the hardcourts. Will there be a letdown from Swiatek and Anisimova following grueling clay and grass seasons back-to-back? Could players like Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula reset after their first-round upsets in London and get things back on track where they tend to thrive? Or will someone like Sabalenka get over her Grand Slam roadblock to capture another major?
Time will tell but until then, on to links!
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This Week in Women’s Tennis
There were three WTA 125 events held last week with Caty McNally (Newport), Francesca Jones (Contrexeville) and Elisabetta Cocciaretto (Bastad) emerging with the singles trophies.
Aryna Sabalenka is the first person to qualify for this year’s WTA Finals:
The wtatennis.com team caught up with Iga Swiatek after her Wimbledon victory and how she’s holding up following her surprise title.
Gabi Taylor was a promising junior player competing at Wimbledon, but now she’s making her mark on the grounds as an artist.
25 years ago, Venus Williams was celebrating her first Grand Slam title and later this month, she’s returning to the WTA Tour with a wildcard into Washington D.C.
Is the scoring format the reason why we see less women’s “classics” at Grand Slams?
Carson Branstine had the biggest tournament of her professional career and she’s celebrating by deleting the Uber Driver app.
After just three months, Jasmine Paolini split with coach, former ATP player Marc Lopez.
Oklahoma State head coach Chris Young was relieved of his duties after being found guilty of Level I recruiting violations and lying to investigators.
Good on Maria Sharapova for calling out the Wall Street Journal’s sexist headline about Ayrna Sabalenka hitting with male players.
The Wimbledon museum received Solana Sierra’s racquet after she became the first lucky loser in the tournament’s history to make it to the fourth round.
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Five at The IX: Wimbledon
Q. What do you think at this moment of your career that this Wimbledon title means exactly? Is it special? Is it the right timing?
IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don’t know what’s ahead of me obviously, so hard to say. For sure it’s a lot, especially after a season with a lot of ups and downs and a lot of expectations from the outside that I didn’t really match winning Wimbledon.
It’s something that is just surreal. I feel like tennis keeps surprising me, and I keep surprising myself.
I’m really happy with the whole process, how it looked like from the first day we stepped on a grass court. Yeah, I feel like we did everything for it to go in that direction without expecting it, just working really hard.
It means a lot, and it gives me a lot of experience. Yeah, I don’t even know. I’m just happy (smiling).
Q. What kind of message is your performance during these two weeks for young players who struggle with different kind of problems?
AMANDA ANISIMOVA: Yeah, I feel like the last two weeks, if anything, I’ve learned it was you’re never going to be perfect, and every match is different. I think that I sensed myself getting down on myself. When I look at certain players like Jannik or Carlos, who I look up to a lot, they don’t make easy mistakes and don’t give almost anything to their opponents.
In a sense, I was looking at certain things in that perspective, but then I also reminded myself, nobody’s perfect. I was trying to go into today thinking that, Okay, I’ll accept the mistakes I make. Maybe that wasn’t the right way of going into it (smiling).
I think like, honestly, my fighting spirit has gotten me to the final of today. It wasn’t me playing perfect in a way. There were matches where I struggled and I wasn’t playing to my full potential. I think me just staying focused and fighting my way through certain moments and focusing and also lifting myself up and trying to not get negative on myself was the most important thing.
I think that’s really what got me to the final.
Q. You must be on such a high. What does it feel like to win Wimbledon? I’ll never win it. Can you describe the feeling? What’s it like?
VERONIKA KUDERMETOVA: I mean, for the moment, I mean me right now, I’m not feel that I’m Wimbledon champion in double, but maybe in the evening or tomorrow I will realize it.
But when I finish the match, I mean, was so emotional. I even start to cry a little bit, but then I saw Elise. She cry. Okay, I have to hold my emotion (laughing).
ELISE MERTENS: I mean, it’s an incredible feeling. I feel it already.
VERONIKA KUDERMETOVA: Good.
ELISE MERTENS: I was very locked in at the end. We both were. Then we just let all the emotions out because, you know, tennis is an emotional sport. Yeah, I mean, we’re only here once a year, so you try to be the best you can be. We’re very fortunate to win this one together.
Q. How do you think this will change your life?
MIA POHANKOVA: I don’t know. Just I think start my career. I need to won like real Wimbledon, not juniors. I think this is just start.
Q. Katerina, you’ve won pretty much everything there is to win in doubles. Where does this rank?
KATARINA SINIAKOVA: I say it every time. I mean, I don’t like to compare the titles. Every one is special. Every one has memories. Definitely means a lot.
I didn’t have mixed doubles title. Especially here, Wimbledon, this one is very special. Of course, it means a lot.
| Mondays: Soccer |
| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
| Wednesdays: Basketball |
| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The Next |
| Thursdays: Golf |
| By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX |
| Fridays: Hockey |
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| By: Lela Moore, @runlelarun, Freelance Writer |
