LONDON :Iga Swiatek may not love the grass but she seems to relish a battle whatever the surface and showed all that fighting spirit as she clawed back to beat American Caty McNally 5-7 6-2 6-1 and reach the third round of Wimbledon on Thursday.
McNally, the world number 208, looked poised to cause an upset when she clawed her way back from 4-1 down to take the first set against the five-times Grand Slam champion.
At that point Swiatek’s mediocre record at the All England Club, where the Pole has never gone past the quarter-finals, seemed to be weighing heavily on her shoulders.
But rather than shy away from the scrap, the former world number one seemed to flick a psychological switch that saw her come out for the second set transformed, upping her aggression and playing with a ferocity McNally simply could not handle.
She broke early in the second set and never looked back, losing only three more games to set up a third-round match against another American Danielle Collins.
