Channel Slam in sight: Can Iga Swiatek capture first Wimbledon title?

In a few days’ time, Iga Swiatek will embark on a daunting challenge that many Grand Slam champions have faced, but only great ones have mastered: back-to-back wins at the French Open and Wimbledon, aka a “Channel Slam.”

With five Grand Slam titles under her belt, an active 19-match win streak, and a finely balanced all-around game, 23-year old Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek has stoked hopes that she might become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2015 to earn a Channel Slam. The feat is within reach of any player who wins in Paris, but one which very few grasp.

Among those it has eluded are: Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Justine Henin, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Ashleigh Barty.

A Channel Slam requires superb versatility and remarkable physical and mental stamina—so much so that in the pro era, only seven women have accomplished it, and even fewer (5) men. Only two men did it more than once (Nadal and Bjorn Borg), while five women completed two Channel Slams.

For sure it's a huge challenge. If I would lose here earlier, maybe I would be able to play two more weeks on grass and then be a better grass-court player. But if I [have to] choose, I love playing on clay. So, I'm not going to give up that. Ever. Iga Swiatek on competing at Wimbledon

Those are the stakes for Swiatek, who used an improved grass-court game to make up for the lack of preparation time for Wimbledon last year to battle into the quarterfinals. She was then beaten in three high-quality sets by a resurgent Elina Svitolina.

“Last year's result was pretty nice,” Swiatek said of that run during the clay swing this year. “I feel like every year it's easier for me to adapt to grass.”

Yet some were puzzled when, just days after claiming her third consecutive Roland Garros title a few weeks ago, Swiatek pulled out of the WTA grass-court event in Berlin. In a statement, she put the reason down as “overall physical and mental fatigue after an intense nine weeks [on clay].” Swiatek will play Wimbledon cold, with no official matches on grass to adapt on the surface where she’s enjoyed relatively little success.

Swiatek’s career record on grass is an anemic 16-7,but she’s a whopping 124-17 on clay, including 35-2 at the French Open. Those numbers are Nadalesque, and this is a propitious moment for her to feel inspired by the King of Clay. Is it a good omen for Swiatek that Nadal also had four major titles (all collected at Roland Garros) when he punched through in 2008 to record the first of his two Channel Slams?

It may be a little premature to declare Swiatek the Queen of Clay, but with three consecutive RG titles she’s at least the Duchess of Dirt. She knows what a Wimbledon title would do for her status, but she isn’t getting ahead of her skis. Nor does she want to disparage the surface she loves.

“For sure it's a huge challenge,” Swiatek told reporters, referring to Wimbledon, after she won this year in Paris. “If I would lose here earlier, maybe I would be able to play two more weeks on grass and then be a better grass-court player. But if I [have to] choose, I love playing on clay. So, I'm not going to give up that. Ever.”

Swiatek doesn’t need to alter her game in order to win Wimbledon. It has already earned her a US Open title and other honors on hard courts. There’s a tendency to look at success on grass or clay as a binary proposition, but that’s not true. Nadal and Borg both were radical stylists early in their careers, typecast—with plenty of justification—as “clay-court specialists.” Many felt that their games would never read well on turf.

Nothing in Swiatek’s game, or even in her stated preference for clay, has led anyone to pigeonhole her in a similar way so she is already ahead of the game. Her strengths transcend issues of technique, tactics and strategy.

As Jasmine Paolini said after losing the French Open final to Swiatek:

She's taking the balls early, taking time [away from] you, but also using rotation (topspin). She can defend really, really well. . . this was my first time facing a player that is taking [away] time as much as she does, but also hitting winners and being close on [inside] the court.

The assessment tells you that Swiatek has exceptional athletic abilities, which is the defining trademark of almost all the great players, from Serena Williams and Steffi Graf to the ATP’s Big Three. But Swiatek has also done some work to make her game more effective on grass.

Swiatek won the junior Wimbledon title in 2018. The following year, she was sliced to pieces in the first round at Wimbledon by crafty pro Victorija Golubic. Swiatek learned her lesson, but she wasn’t able to do too much about it under real-world conditions because of the disruptions caused by COVID-19. But the additional work she did when normalcy resumed on her use of touch (a great asset on Wimbledon’s grass, where soft balls bounce dead) and the slice backhand—in both offense and defense—has paid off.

Swiatek’s fate this year, as it was in 2022, may be decided by intangibles. That year, she carried a 37-match winning streak into Wimbledon, and the weight of it ultimately helped crush her hopes. Caving to the pressure, Swiatek’s game deserted her and she lost in straight sets in the third round to veteran Alizé Cornet.

I deeply believe that the best players, they can play on all surfaces. I want to kind of become that kind of player who can play well on grass, as well, and feel comfortable there. Iga Swiatek

Swiatek admitted later that the streak weighed heavily on her mind in 2022, saying, “After Roland Garros, kind of everybody was talking about that. It was a lot on my shoulders.”

Anxieties about her lack of match play on grass, her current winning streak, the Channel Slam—we won’t even get into the heightened quality of her opposition—could emerge as determining factors for her at Wimbledon this year. But she has had an additional year of seasoning, and seems more adjusted to the demands of her status.

This year, Swiatek has also improved an already excellent serve—certainly a more formidable weapon on grass than on clay—and that potent forehand is stable. Swiatek is an excellent slider on clay, but getting in and out of the corners on grass is a different skill. That’s why, she recently said, she will be focusing on movement in the run up to Wimbledon.

Overall, though, excellent movement is one of her foundational talents. “Iga is so dynamic with her movement,” Alexandra Stevenson, a former Wimbledon semifinalist and ESPN analyst, recently told me: “That puts her on another level compared to other contenders, including (defending champion) Marketa Vondrousova. Plus, Iga’s ball has a lot of pop. She can hit aces, put the ball away, or just play you off the court.”

Swiatek is motivated to win Wimbledon. As she said before last year’s campaign, “I deeply believe that the best players, they can play on all surfaces. I want to kind of become that kind of player who can play well on grass, as well, and feel comfortable there.”

She already is “that kind of player.” All she needs now is the official validation a Channel Slam would provide.