Iga Swiatek wins 15th consecutive opening round at a major to launch Wimbledon bid

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek confidently launched her Wimbledon campaign Monday on Court 1, as she bids to add a fifth major trophy to her collection.

Having pulled out ahead of her Bad Homburg semifinal Friday citing a fever, Swiatek shared Saturday in her pre-tournament press conference she was “pretty sure it’s going to be fine.”

Fine is an apt word to describe her effort against Zhu Lin, a competitor who just missed the seeding cutoff. Swiatek found 21 winners to 16 unforced errors and after waiting out a brief delay to close the roof for rain in the area, took the final two games to eliminate her 34th-ranked foe, 6-1, 6-3. The Pole has now won her last 15 successive opening rounds on the Grand Slam stage, dating back to a first-round defeat here in 2019.

Andrey Rublev and Victoria Azarenka were also among the early winners on Day 1. The seventh-seeded Rublev defeated Max Purcell, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, while the 19th-seeded Azarenka fended off Yuan Yue, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Both were missing in action last year following the All England Club's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in support of Ukraine.

Elsewhere, Cristina Bucsa saved four match points, rallying from 5-9 down in a decisive 10-point tiebreaker to deny Kamilla Rakhimova, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (11-9). Ana Bogdan was the first player to knock out a seeded opponent by virtue of her 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4) win over No. 15 seed Liudimila Samsonova.

American Alycia Parks clinched her first main-draw win at a major, overcoming Anna-Lena Friedsam, 6-4, 6-3. Parks saved six of the seven break points she faced in advancing after one hour and 41 minutes.