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New York Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Wimbledon final: Iga Swiatek routs Amanda Anisimova to win first Wimbledon title
Follow live coverage of Wimbledon THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON — Iga Świątek beat Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the Wimbledon final at The All England Club Saturday. The No. 8 seed prevailed over the No. 13 seed in a one-sided clinic, ultimately decided by Anisimova's nerves, Świątek's clear-headed tactics, and the relentlessness that makes her one of the best players in the world. Advertisement It is Świątek's first Wimbledon title, and her sixth Grand Slam singles title. She is the only active WTA Tour player to hold Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces, alongside the returning Venus Williams, and she is now 6-0 in major finals. It is the second double bagel in a Grand Slam final in the Open Era, and the first since 1988, when Steffi Graf won the French Open against Natasha Zvereva by a 6-0, 6-0 scoreline. The Athletic's writers, Charlie Eccleshare and Matt Futterman, analyze the final and what it means for tennis. This was always a danger for a first-time Grand Slam finalist. Świątek had played five and never lost one; Anisimova had never been here before. The American could tell herself for two days that it was just tennis, the sport she had played her whole life. The court was the same dimensions. Just another match. And then she walked onto Centre Court. There's Princess Catherine of Wales, in the Royal Box with a cadre of luminaries. That's fine. Wimbledon is a major. Famous people come to watch every day. And then, unlike her other six matches this fortnight, Anisimova stepped up to the line and her serve just wouldn't go in. Then her fearsome, peerless backhand wouldn't go in. On the other side of the net, Świątek was returning everything and missing nothing. Everything looked ready to crumble from there, and that was the story of the first set for Anisimova, a portrait of nerves in action. She won just nine points to 27 for Świątek. She made 14 unforced errors. Her backhand kept tumbling into the net. The worst of it was the serve, the shot where each player controls their own destiny. She kept catching her toss. She made just 33 percent of her first serves. She hit three double faults. It was as though her arms were not attached to the rest of her body. Advertisement There's no other explanation. A Grand Slam final. A Wimbledon final. The Princess of Wales. As Carlos Alcaraz said after his first match, 'Wimbledon is different.' Especially the final. Matt Futterman Anisimova's biggest strength is her backhand, and so it might have seemed counter-intuitive for Świątek to target it in the first set. But in so doing, she opened up a world of possibilities for herself, while telling Anisimova that her best shot wasn't going to trouble her. She was constantly moving Anisimova off balance and out of the court by breaking the sideline with her backhands, creating space to exploit on the other side. It was a particularly effective play because Świątek possesses probably the best inside-out backhand in the sport, and that's where the space was to hit into once the players had traded backhands. When Anisimova got to the ball on the deuce side, her forehand was wayward. She started going for too much, aware of how well Świątek was retrieving, which contributed to the 14 unforced errors she hit in the first set alone, compared to just three winners. Attacking her backhand also sent out a message that Świątek didn't fear her opponent's biggest strength. She's been criticized for not being as tactically astute as previously over the last year, but this was a brutally clear-headed performance. Charlie Eccleshare For Świątek, winning Wimbledon may be the most stunning yet predictable moment of what was already a Hall of Fame career. A month ago, she seemed rattled. Losses had been piling up and she had failed to defend three clay-court titles, including her favorite French Open. Her ranking tumbled to No. 8. But Świątek had also made the semifinals in both majors in 2025, and had been showing signs of embedding the controlled aggression that she and her coach Wim Fissette wanted to be the bread and butter of her game. Advertisement That has certainly happened. In a matter of weeks, she has flipped the script and solved the puzzle, on the grass of Wimbledon, the surface on which she was wrongly and too quickly written off. In part, the loss of those three titles may have been a help. The weight of expectation went away. But most of all, Świątek has done what all the great players have done at this tournament. She has thrived where greatness thrives, playing tennis and thinking her way through her shots and her matches. And in less than an hour Saturday she became the Wimbledon champion, giving her six Grand slam titles and one on every tennis surface, just as Ash Barty achieved before she dropped the mic with her retirement at the top of the sport in 2022. That made Świątek the world No. 1. This title makes her the greatest since Serena Williams. Matt Futterman We'll bring you their on-court quotes and press conference reflections as they come in. We'll bring you their on-court quotes and press conference reflections as they come in.
Time of India
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Why is Wimbledon blaming human error for a mistake by its new electronic line-calling system?
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The All England Club, somewhat ironically, is blaming " human error " for a glaring mistake by the electronic system that replaced human line judges this year at Wimbledon The CEO of the club, Sally Bolton , said Monday that the ball-tracking technology was "inadvertently deactivated" by someone for three points at Centre Court during Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova's three-set victory over Sonay Kartal a day earlier in the fourth round. On one point, a shot by Kartal clearly landed past the baseline but wasn't called out by the automated setup - called Hawk-Eye - because it had been shut declined to say who made the mistake or how, exactly, it occurred or whether that person would face any consequences or be re-trained. She did note that there were other people at fault: the chair umpire, Nico Helwerth, and two who should have let him know the system was temporarily down - the review official and the Hawk-Eye official."We didn't need to put line judges back on the court again," Bolton said. "We needed the system to be active."Is Wimbledon using AI for line calls this year? Not really. But like most big tennis tournaments nowadays - the French Open is one notable exception - Wimbledon has replaced its line judges with cameras that are supposed to follow the balls on every shot to determine whether they land in or are those, particularly in the British media, who keep referring to this as part of the ever-increasing creep of AI into day-to-day life, but Bolton objected to the use of that term in this case."The point I would want to emphasize - and perhaps contrary to some of the reporting we've seen - is it's not an artificial intelligence system. And it is electronic in the sense that the camera-tracking technology is set up to call the lines automatically, but it requires a human element to ensure that the system is functional," Bolton said. "So it is not AI. There are some humans involved. And in this instance, it was a human error."What happened on the missed call at Wimbledon? Russia's Pavlyuchenkova was one point from winning a game for a 5-4 lead in the first set against Britain's Kartal on Sunday when a shot by Kartal landed long. But there was no ruling from a delay, Helwerth decided the point should be replayed, which Pavlyuchenkova thought showed bias toward an opponent competing in her home country. With Hawk-Eye back up and running after a delay, Kartal won that game, but Pavlyuchenkova took that set and the All England Club looked into what happened and found that the line-calling system actually was off for three points before anyone system itself worked "optimally," Bolton said repeatedly."In this instance, sadly," she said, "it was the human part of the operation that made a mistake."Why was the Hawk-Eye system accidentally turned off during a match? Bolton said the system is shut down between matches - "and the humans are the people that need to do the activating and deactivating" - and someone accidentally did so during Pavlyuchenkova vs. why, Bolton responded: "Well, I don't know. It was a mistake, obviously. ... I wasn't sat there, so I don't know what happened."She said Helwerth could have made a ruling himself on the controversial non-call, the way he did on the prior pair of points, but instead just decided to pause the match."I'm assuming," Bolton said, "he felt he had not seen it properly."Pavlyuchenkova said after the match the official told her he thought the ball was do players think about the use of technology at Wimbledon? Players are divided on whether there even should be electronic rulings during matches - unless it is fool-proof - or whether there should be a return to Wimbledon's old way of doing 2007 through last year, there was a combination of the human touch and technology: There were line judges on court to make calls, but players were allowed to challenge and ask for a video replay of a point if they thought there was a mistake."It's such a big match, big event," Pavlyuchenkova said. "Since we have already automatic line-calling and so much invested into this, we should probably look into something else to have better decisions."
West Australian
07-07-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Wimbledon: 16-year-old Cruz Hewitt makes debut to remember as father Lleyton Hewitt watches on
Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt has watched from the stands as his 16-year-old son Cruz made a Wimbledon debut to remember. Following in his father's footsteps, but incredibly at a year younger than Lleyton, Hewitt took his highly anticipated first steps on the hallowed grass of The All England Club. And the 16-year-old showed he could be Australian men's tennis' next big thing, cruising past Russian Savva Rybkin, who has only been beaten eight times in his junior career. Hewitt claimed a convincing 6-1, 6-2 victory in the first round of the famed junior tournament, eliciting Lleyton's trademark fist pumps from the player's box. The youngster bears an uncanny resemblance to his father, especially in a back-to-front cap, moving around the court swiftly and utilising powerful groundstrokes. Lleyton featured in the junior draw at Wimbledon in 1998 at 17 years old before going on to win two Grand Slams, one on the famed grass in 2002, less than a year after his first at the 2001 US Open. Hewitt Snr remains the last Australian man to claim a Grand Slam title and is the current coach of Australia's Davis Cup team, which he represented when they won their last title in 2003. His son will next face Finnish 11th seed Oskari Paldanius on Tuesday.
Perth Now
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Perth Now
Like father, like son! Hewitt Cruz-es to win Wimbledon debut
Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt has watched from the stands as his 16-year-old son Cruz made a Wimbledon debut to remember. Following in his father's footsteps, but incredibly at a year younger than Lleyton, Hewitt took his highly anticipated first steps on the hallowed grass of The All England Club. And the 16-year-old showed he could be Australian men's tennis' next big thing, cruising past Russian Savva Rybkin, who has only been beaten eight times in his junior career. Hewitt claimed a convincing 6-1, 6-2 victory in the first round of the famed junior tournament, eliciting Lleyton's trademark fist pumps from the player's box. Cruz Hewitt of Australia celebrates a break point against Savva Rybkin. Credit: Dan Istitene / Getty Images The youngster bears an uncanny resemblance to his father, especially in a back-to-front cap, moving around the court swiftly and utilising powerful groundstrokes. Lleyton featured in the junior draw at Wimbledon in 1998 at 17 years old before going on to win two Grand Slams, one on the famed grass in 2002, less than a year after his first at the 2001 US Open. Cruz Hewitt of Australia plays a forehand against Savva Rybkin. Credit: Dan Istitene / Getty Images Hewitt Snr remains the last Australian man to claim a Grand Slam title and is the current coach of Australia's Davis Cup team, which he represented when they won their last title in 2003. His son will next face Finnish 11th seed Oskari Paldanius on Tuesday.
