The debate over who would open Centre Court on Tuesday lasted days, the match itself lasted just 75 minutes.
In the absence of retired 2021 Wimbledon champion Ash Barty, it was Iga Swiatek who got the nod and she duly delivered a 6-0 6-3 victory over Jana Fett to extend her winning run to 36 matches.
Jelena Ostapenko, on February 16, was the last player to get the better of the world No1, who has almost as many ranking points as Ons Jabeur and Anett Kontaveit, second and third in the world respectively, combined.
Not much about Swiatek’s performances over the past four months would have given Fett reason to be confident, though the fact there have not been any recent displays was one potential glimmer of hope. This was Swiatek’s first match since winning the French Open, and just the 13th professional contest on grass of her career.
An early Swiatek break quickly set the tone. Fett had a chance to break back immediately, only to send the forehand long as her box urged for calm. That was wishful thinking when the Croatian was broken again and swiftly found herself 5-0 down, serving to avoid a first-set bagel.
Four times it went to deuce in the sixth game of the match but Fett could hold on no longer as Swiatek got the job done with her third set point.
The Swiatek machine malfunctioned at the start of the second set, two poor drop shots sent straight into the net as Fett got on the board for the match with an improbable break to love.
There was a quick response from the 21-year-old who broke straight back, but she then lost her serve again and Fett found the first hold of the set to lead 3-1. Swiatek’s game was suddenly littered with unforced errors, the kind of rusty display that some might have predicted at the start of the match but less so after a first-set breeze.
Five break points came the way of Fett in the following game, none were taken and with that the Swiatek reboot had begun. The Pole got a break of her own to get things back on serve, before a relatively comfortable hold moved her ahead in the second set for the first time.
Break points for Swiatek at this point felt effectively like match points and so it proved, as she broke at the third time of asking and then served it out with minimal fuss. Lucky loser Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove is next, in what will only be Swiatek’s second appearance beyond the first round at Wimbledon.
