Iga Swiatek defeats Sofia Kenin at Wimbledon to extend winning streak to 20 matches in a row

Iga Swiatek has made a winning start to her 2024 Wimbledon campaign, defeating 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in straight sets in her first-round match on Tuesday, 6-3, 6-4.

And with her latest victory, the world No. 1 hits a milestone—she extends her 2024 winning streak to 20 matches in a row.

She won her last 19 matches of the clay-court season, which took her to the ninth and 10th WTA 1000 titles of her career at Madrid and Rome, then to her fifth Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.

Now, she notches her 20th straight win on the lawns of Wimbledon.

This is Swiatek’s second career winning streak of 20 matches or more in a row, following her 37-match winning streak from 2022, which took her to six consecutive titles at Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and Roland Garros, and to the third round of Wimbledon, where her run was snapped by Alize Cornet.

The 23-year-old is just the ninth woman in the Open Era to have multiple 20-match winning streaks before their 24th birthday, the first eight women to do it being absolute legends—Evonne Goolagong, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Justine Henin.

Swiatek was on her game from start to finish against Kenin on Tuesday, finishing the match with 17 winners to 12 unforced errors—including six aces to just one double fault.

She got broken once, after she was already up an early break at 2-0 in the first set, but she held every service game the rest of the way and wrapped up the victory after an hour and 19 minutes.

The first question in press asked her if she was feeling good.

“Yes, especially playing first match after a two-week break,” the 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinalist replied. “Felt a little bit rusty, but I’m happy that I’m through to the second round. Yeah, it’s good that I’m going to have another chance to play on the grass court.”

She's now won her last 19 first-round matches in a row at Grand Slams, her last opening loss coming at Wimbledon in 2019.

Awaiting her in the second round this year will be former Top 20 player Petra Martic, a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 winner over British wild card Francesca Jones. Swiatek is 3-0 in her career against Martic, winning all of those meetings in straight sets, including a 6-2, 7-5 victory in the third round of The Championships a year ago.