THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 12, 2025

Iga Swiatek

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/A. Anisimova

6-0, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference for the Wimbledon ladies singles champion, Iga Swiatek.

IGA SWIATEK: Sounds good (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Iga, Wimbledon champion, how does that sound to you?

IGA SWIATEK: It sounds amazing. Pretty surreal. Yeah, I'm just appreciating every minute. I'm just proud of myself because, yeah, who would have expected that?

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What do you think at this moment of your career that this Wimbledon title means exactly? Is it special? Is it the right timing?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don't know what's ahead of me obviously, so hard to say. For sure it's a lot, especially after a season with a lot of ups and downs and a lot of expectations from the outside that I didn't really match winning Wimbledon.

It's something that is just surreal. I feel like tennis keeps surprising me, and I keep surprising myself.

I'm really happy with the whole process, how it looked like from the first day we stepped on a grass court. Yeah, I feel like we did everything for it to go in that direction without expecting it, just working really hard.

It means a lot, and it gives me a lot of experience. Yeah, I don't even know. I'm just happy (smiling).

Q. There's been a lot of conversation or doubts about you and your game in the last year or so and criticism of you or your team. What kind of a statement do you think it is to win Wimbledon at all, then to do it 6-0, 6-0 in the final? A very loud answer to any sort of questions about anything.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly, the thing is that we as public people and as athletes, we can't really react to everything what's going on. We got to focus on ourselves.

Obviously sometimes it's easier to do that, sometimes it's harder. For sure the past months, how the media sometimes describe me, and I got to say unfortunately Polish media, how they treated me and my team, it wasn't really pleasant.

I hope they will just leave me alone and let me do my job because obviously you can see that we know what we are doing, and I have the best people around me. I have already proved a lot. I know people want more and more, but it's my own process and my own life and my own career.

Hopefully I'm going to have a freedom from them, as well, to let me do my job the way I want it.

Q. Where do you rank this Wimbledon title in comparison to your other Grand Slam wins?

IGA SWIATEK: Oh my God, that's always the hardest question (smiling).

Well, I don't know. I think the fact that it's on grass, for sure it makes it more special, I would say, and more unexpected. So for sure, it feels like the emotions are bigger because on Roland Garros I know I can play well, and I know I can, like, show it on every year. Here, I wasn't sure of that. I also needed to prove that to myself.

I'm not going to rank them 'cause I have so much also respect to the other tournaments. I worked really hard to win all the other slams. So there's no point to choose between them.

But this one and the US Open for sure feel like just, I don't know, better because no one expected that. It wasn't a relief. It was more of just good tennis and working to make it happen, yeah, without this baggage on your shoulders.

Q. Is it just so much easier to come into a tournament as the No. 8 seed and no one expecting anything? How did that play into your experience of the last two weeks?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, honestly, it's not about the rankings. It's about what place you are at at the moment. Like, my ranking, I wasn't No. 1 from the beginning of the year, so I for sure missed that, and I would love it to be differently. Other girls played amazing tournaments. I didn't play China swing. Obviously I knew that my ranking is not going to be high, especially when I have so many points to defend on clay.

But I would say really, especially here, it didn't really matter because I focused so much on just developing as a player and figuring out how to play better on grass that my mind was busy with that instead of points and rankings.

Q. How will you celebrate this evening? Not eating pasta and strawberries?

IGA SWIATEK: I'm going to go with something more crazy than pasta and strawberries, but I don't know. I heard I have two hours of media. First, I'm going to focus on that. Then we'll see.

I don't know what the team and my family is up to. They've been already celebrating for two hours. They're at a different stage, I would say. But I'll join them, for sure.

Q. You spoke about the first day that you stepped on grass this time. Can you say when exactly that was? What has this grass court season and grass taught you about yourself?

IGA SWIATEK: I have to check my calendar (checking her phone). It was on the 12th of June. So yeah, I had five days of really solid practice in Mallorca and then went to Bod Hamburg to continue and to play some points with other girls, and then matches obviously.

But for sure I feel like the process has been a little bit better with, yeah, us going to Mallorca, and just the quality of the practices was much better on real grass courts that were used later on for a tournament.

Q. Your Polish nationality seems important to you. Can you talk about how special it is to be the first-ever Polish champion of Wimbledon? Also, if I may, can I ask if you could share what the Princess of Wales said to you after your victory?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure me being Polish is a big part of me. But I wouldn't say that, I don't know, my country needed that because we also had so many players playing well on grass. I mean, not so many. Agnieszka obviously, and doubles players, as well. Jan in mixed doubles recently.

Like, I think Poland didn't lack success on grass in tennis because of them. Especially because of Agnieszka, because it was singles, and it was her favorite surface.

So yeah, but for sure I hope I will inspire someone.

What was the other part?

Q. What the Princess of Wales said to you after your victory.

IGA SWIATEK: Well, on court she just congratulated. She told me some nice stuff about the performance. Later on, I don't remember really 'cause I was too overwhelmed. I didn't want to do any faux pas. I wanted to behave well.

Overall the process of getting the trophy from Her Royal Highness was something surreal. Since I'm a kid, honestly I'm a big fan of the Royal family. It was amazing. I really appreciate that. I'm really grateful, yeah, that it was Her Royal Highness giving the trophy.

Q. Some of the games you played recently in the last few days reminded me of that streak you were on three years ago. Did you feel shocked that you're doing that now on the grass?

IGA SWIATEK: Well, 'shocked' would be too big of a word. For sure I was surprised with the consistency. I knew I can do it before, but I don't think I ever served so well throughout the whole three weeks even. Bod Hamburg was also a good tournament in terms of that. It was always kind of more up and down.

Yeah, I was just going, like, using the good feeling that I had on the court. For sure it felt great. I know in my mind I can be focused. I'm not going to waste points and let them go for free. So this I knew. But for sure my level of tennis helped me to keep that on a constant level.

Q. You won 24 out of 29 finals you played over your career, sometimes with shocking in a good way of the performances. Which one is the secret?

IGA SWIATEK: Which?

Q. In the finals, is it more mental? It's kind of unique number.

IGA SWIATEK: I think tennis is a mental sport, but also you need everything to win tournaments, like good tennis, good physicality, being also not tired, have good matches before so you don't spend too much time on the court, having great focus.

Obviously the finals are sometimes, when I watched other players playing, I could see the difference in the level. Finals sometimes are a bit ugly because there's so much stress and everything. I kind of used the experience from before.

Today I just wanted to enjoy the time that I had on the Centre Court and enjoy the last hours of me playing well on grass 'cause who knows if it's going to happen again (smiling). I just focused on that and I really had fun.

Obviously I was stressed, as anybody would be. But I wanted to just do my job, and that's it.

Q. You've talked about it being unexpected that it was on grass. You were the girl's singles champion here seven years ago. You were a quarterfinalist two years ago. You have been No. 1 for a long time. Have we, perhaps including you, made too much of the idea that you can't play on grass?

IGA SWIATEK: Even if finally no one was telling me to win everything, so coming here, yeah, as I said at the beginning, I could really focus on getting better and developing as a player rather than everybody just asking me to win, win, and nothing is good besides winning.

Even if it was too big of a story, I kind of enjoyed that because expectations were a bit lower.