Wimbledon 2026 results: Iga Switek continues title defence with dominant victory over Karolina Pliskova
Swiatek would continue to dominate what had appeared a potentially tricky second-round match-up against a former world number one, although the 34-year-old Pliskova remains on the comeback trail after missing most of the 2025 season recovering from ankle surgery.
Pliskova managed a response in set two, breaking for a 2-0 lead as Swiatek’s level once again dropped on serve – but the Czech was unable to consolidate, double-faulting on break point in the following game.
Another costly double fault two games later gifted another break to Swiatek, who by that point had rediscovered her first-set level and completed victory in just 69 minutes by winning six of the final seven games.
After 18-time major winner Martina Navratilova graded her performance an A+, Swiatek responded: “When legends like that say nice things about you, it means a lot. It is basically why you try to be the best tennis player possible, so that people appreciate it.
“I don’t know if it was an A+ because at times it was a tricky game. I felt like I played so many dirty shots in that final game especially, I wasn’t able to control them that much. So maybe not A+, more like B, I would say.”
Victory extended Swiatek’s record of not losing before the third round at a Grand Slam since the 2019 US Open, and she remains the only woman to have reached the third round at all 26 Grand Slam events held this decade.
However, she lost at that stage of this year’s French Open – the tournament where she had won four titles in the previous six years – and will now seek to avoid the same fate against Alexandra Eala, of the Philippines.
