Swiatek takes break to refresh for Wimbledon

WHILE Emma Raducanu and her compatriots step up their Wimbledon preparations on grass this week, Iga Swiatek will retreat home to Warsaw. The dominant French Open champion, who equalled Venus Williams’ record of 35 successive wins with her triumph over Coco Gauff, has not slept in her own bed since early April and will prioritise recharging herself ahead of swiftly gearing up for the All England Club. As she proved on Saturday, she is by some margin the world’s best player at present, although she admitted that the turf is her biggest challenge. ‘My coach believes I can win more matches on grass — I don’t know about that yet,’ said Swiatek (pictured). ‘Honestly, grass is always tricky. I actually like the part that I have no expectations there. It’s something kind of refreshing.’ She is due to play in Berlin during the week of Queen’s, but sounded in no hurry to get ready after an exhausting and unbeaten campaign on the contrasting surface of clay. She added: ‘I want to stay at least a week at home, so I will do that. We have some grass courts, like two probably, maybe an hour and a half from Warsaw. So I don’t know.’ For all her modesty, there seems no reason she should not enjoy a strong run at SW19.

She won the junior event in 2018, beating Raducanu among others along the way, and reached the fourth round last year. After the gentle introduction of Surbiton, the British grass court season ramps up today with the women’s

Rothesay Open beginning at Nottingham. Raducanu will make her first competitive appearance on home soil as the second seed, and will face Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic in the opening round. It represents the first time she will have played a main tour event twice. She could, in theory, face Heather Watson in round two if she makes a winning start to what is scheduled to be one of two tournaments she plays ahead of Wimbledon. Dan Evans is the top seed in the men’s Challenger event taking place in Nottingham concurrently. Following his semi-final defeat at Surbiton, Andy Murray has headed to the ATP grass court event in Stuttgart, where his first-round opponent will be a qualifier.