Iga Swiatek joins Serena Williams and other legends with two stellar achievements at US Open
Iga Swiatek achieved two impressive feats that highlight her immense success and consistency with her opening round victory at the 2024 US Open.
The world No 1 earned a hard-fought 6-4, 7-6(6) win against world No 104 Kamilla Rakhimova on Arthur Ashe Stadium to begin her quest to win a second US Open title.
Swiatek was broken when serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set and won five straight points after trailing 3-6 in the tiebreak — saving three set points in the process — to prevail.
The Polish star is seeking her sixth Grand Slam title, having won the French Open in four of the last five years and the US Open in 2022.
“At the beginning [it was] good, but then I got a little bit tight and my opponent used that, so I was trying to get back to my game,” Swiatek said in a post-match interview. “I’m pretty sure that day by day I’m going to get more rhythm.”
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With her opening round triumph at Flushing Meadows, Swiatek became the fifth-youngest woman in the Open Era to win 20 consecutive Grand Slam first round matches at 23 years and 88 days.
Swiatek started the streak at the 2019 US Open after suffering the only opening round exit in her major career at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.
Maria Sharapova is the youngest player to win 20 straight opening round women’s singles Grand Slam opening round encounters, having achieved this at the age of 21 years and 37 days.
Caroline Wozniacki (21 years, 321 days), Lindsay Davenport (21 years, 351 days) and Gabriela Sabatini (22 years, 247 days) are the only other woman to accomplish this at a younger age than Swiatek.
In addition, Swiatek’s win was her 80th Grand Slam victory in her 97th match and only two tennis legends have reached this milestone in fewer matches this century.
Serena Williams earned 80 wins from her first 93 major singles matches, while Venus Williams achieved this in 94 matches.
Swiatek will face world No 217 Ena Shibahara, a 26-year-old Japanese qualifier, in the second round on Thursday.
Shibahara struck 57 winners during her three-set win over Daria Saville, which is the highest number any player hit in the first round of the women’s singles event in New York.
