Iga Swiatek had a weird 2024. She had been the WTA No. 1 for the better part of two years, but she suddenly found herself failing. She also fell in the rankings, outside the top 5. Plus, she had to serve a one-month suspension for testing positive for a banned substance.
To be clear, she hadn't been doping, but she did have a substance in her system, and tennis rules are what tennis rules are. For better or worse.
But even during a run of several years that saw her win four French Opens and one US Open, she had never been very good on grass. Her best performance at Wimbledon prior to 2025 was reaching the quarterfinals in 2023. While being ranked No. 1, she was never a favorite to win the grass-court major.
Iga Swiatek achieves career-first at Wimbledon by defeating Liudmila Samsonova
She might be now. The Pole made an important change in October 2024, appointing Wim Fissette as her coach. The move was supposed to help her have a better all-around game with the hopes that she could do well on grass. Oddly, while she still struggles relatively on clay (compared to her own level), compared to her previous level, she is much better on what used to be her worst surface.
This was proven in her quarterfinal match on Wednesday against Liudmila Samsonova. Samsonova had never had much success at Wimbledon, but she appeared to be trending toward becoming the latest player to experience a mid-career ascension.
It was not to be against Swiatek. The Pole swept through the first set 6-2 with stunningly efficient tennis and a wicked forehand. This kept pushing Samsonova into positions she was not comfortable in, and the Russian continued to make unforced errors that were not entirely unforced.
Samsonova finished the first set with six winners but 18 unforced errors. No one is going to win a match with that kind of ratio.
The credit should go to Swiatek, though. She was dictating the pace of play and constructing points in a way that Samsonova could not match.
The second set was much tighter as Samsonova raised her level of play, though did cost herself with too many double faults, but after Swiatek suffered a couple of breaks, she didn't wilt. She had a solid service game to lead 5-4, and then jumped out to a quick lead on the Russian's next game. Swiatek finished of the set and the match with one more break to take the second set 7-5.
Swiatek will next face the winner of the Mirra Andreeva and Belinda Bencic match in the semifinals on Thursday. None of the three had made the semifinals at Wimbledon before.