Wimbledon: World No 1 Iga Swiatek goes back to basics in bid for glory

World No 1 Iga Swiatek is on a mission to improve her modest record on grasscourts and said that she had gone back to basics in the buildup to Wimbledon.

Swiatek won the US Open in 2022 and last month secured her second consecutive French Open crown. But while the 22-year-old has had success on hardcourts and clay, she is yet to win a tournament on grass and has yet to get past the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

The Pole's overall win-loss record on the slick surface is 9-5, and she acknowledged that she had to do better to be counted among the game's great players.

"I believe the best players, they can play on all surfaces. I want to become that kind of player who can play well on grass as well and feel comfortable there," Swiatek, who meets China's Zhu Lin in the first round, told reporters.

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"I'm doing my best to just work on my skills. Last year I feel like we've done a pretty good job with my coach in terms of my touch and getting back slices and also playing the slice.

"This year I feel like we had more time to kind of focus on the basics, more time to also play matches. Yeah, I'm using that time as much as possible."

Swiatek warmed up for the year's third major with a hard-fought win over Tatjana Maria before comfortably beating Jil Teichmann and Anna Blinkova at Bad Homburg but withdrew before the semi-finals due to fever and possible food poisoning.

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She said she expected to be fine come Monday when Wimbledon begins and added that she was working on perfecting her footwork.

"That's where my strength is on other surfaces," Swiatek said. "For sure, sliding is tricky here, so you have to slow down and stop before the shot in a different way.

"Yeah, I feel like if you have time to adjust to the surface and then use your intuition in matches... I was able to do that a little bit in Bad Homburg. I think it's going to be fine."

Sabalenka: I want to focus on tennis not politics

Aryna Sabalenka admits she was left in tears having to watch Wimbledon last year during a ban on Russian and Belarusian players, but holds no expectations as she heads back to the All England Club.

Following last year's ban due to the illegal invasion of Ukraine, Russian and Belarussian players will be able to play in next week's showpiece tournament after Wimbledon organisers were heavily fined and threatened with further
sanctions by tennis' governing bodies.

Women's No 2 Sabalenka will find herself in the spotlight once again, having opted out of some media obligations at the French Open citing mental health and well-being concerns following some terse exchanges with journalists.

Sabalenka made it clear ahead of a pre-tournament press conference held at Wimbledon on Saturday afternoon that she had no intentions of addressing the issues once again.

"Before we continue I would like to say I'm not going to talk about politics. I'm here to talk about tennis only. Please respect that," Sabalenka said.

"If you have any kind of political questions, you can ask WTA or the tournament. They can send you the transcript of my answers from the previous tournaments." Sabalenka added: "It's my personal decision."

Sabalenka recalled how last year's ban had been tough to endure. "I was at home having a little vacation, then practicing, but, no, I didn't watch Wimbledon a lot," she said.

"I felt so bad and I just couldn't watch it. Every time if Wimbledon would be on TV, I would cry, so I decided just to stay away from Wimbledon last year.

"I am always telling myself that the best I can do is focus on things I have control on. That is really helping a lot to not think about anything else on the tennis."

Having enjoyed a run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2021, Sabalenka is hoping for another deep run in the tournament, which starts against Hungarian Panna Udvardy on Tuesday.

"I'm super emotional right now. I'm super happy to be back. I really miss this place," she said. "When I got here first time, I was just like enjoying (it). I couldn't believe that I'm here.

"I'm feeling good. I don't have any kind of expectations. The only one expectation I have is just to bring my best tennis every time I'm on the court, and hopefully I'll do it.

"I only have hope that they (Wimbledon crowd) will support me as they did last year - hopefully."