WIMBLEDON, England — An animated Iga Swiatek stood by her chair on Centre Court and shook her head as she stared toward her team, clearly in disbelief of what she had just achieved.
Swiatek, a 24-year-old from Poland, was just minutes removed from defeating American Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in a dominant display Saturday to earn her first Wimbledon title and sixth major championship, and she was now getting set to receive the Venus Rosewater Dish from the Princess of Wales.
“[It’s] pretty surreal,” said Swiatek, the eighth consecutive first-time women’s champion at Wimbledon. “I’m just proud of myself because … who would have expected that?”
A four-time French Open champion who also won the 2022 US Open, Swiatek had largely struggled at Wimbledon throughout her career. A junior champion at the All England Club in 2018, she had never been past the quarterfinals in the main draw. Her only other final on grass came when she was the runner-up at a tuneup event in Germany right before Wimbledon began.