Iga Swiatek survives heated battle with Kerkhove at Wimbledon

Iga Swiatek faced quite a tricky situation when she dropped a set against Kerkhove at Wimbledon but she rallied on time to win the match 6-4 4-6 6-3.

It takes time to remember when Iga Swiatek had serious trouble beating a player but Kerkhove made everybody realize that it's possible. Yes, it's grass and yes it's far from Swiatek's best but still, the Dutch player provided quite a solid blueprint against the Polish player, at least on this surface. Swiatek was down against her 2-4 in the opening set after both struggled to hold their serve at the start of the match.

The start was erratic for her, no question about that but she was able to find control in her groundstrokes as the match went on taking the opening set 6-4. It was a 4-0 run to close it out behind 10+ winners from Swiatek against a player who could not match that same production. The 2nd set featured good play from both but eventually, Kerkhove took the 5-3 lead.

She finished off the 2nd set 6-4 after Iga missed a couple of balls at the worst possible time. Swiatek struggled to start the final set as well facing a 15-40 on her serve early but held on. It proved the deciding spark she needed as she found her shots not long after that taking the break and eventually closing out the match 6-3.

More troublesome than she hoped but very similar to her encounter with Zhang at Roland Garros. It was the match that reinjections confidence in her so maybe this one will too.