She had been advised to take a break. She had faced one disappointment after another. Swiatek had to settle for bronze at the Olympics, tested positive for doping in August and also replaced her almost untouchable coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. She hadn't played a final since her triumph at the clay Grand Slam last year.
Even she admitted that she would like to disappear from the relentless tennis carousel at least for a while. "I would like to stay in Warsaw for a few months and have the chance to try what it's like to live a normal life from Monday to Sunday," she confessed after losing at this year's French Open.
But in the end she managed to find another solution. She gave grass a chance, where she had previously struggled before. She went to the small spa town of Bad Homburg. "I just love these small tournaments. If I could, I'd play them all the time, it's all without all the fuss and all that stuff around," she dreamed.
She lost to Jessica Pegula in the final, but found peace and confidence there - an ideal preparation for the All England Club.
Key moments
Swiatek vs McNally 5-7, 6-2, 6-1
The second round proved to be a stern test for the Pole. At 4-1, Swiatek started to struggle on serve, lost her serve twice and lost the set 5-7. But then came the moment that broke the match and the resistance of her opponent. In the second game of the second set, Swiatek took a 2-0 lead through six break points.
At the end of the tournament, it turned out that Caty McNally, the 208th player in the WTA rankings, was the only player to win a set against the champion.
While other two-set matches Swiatek managed to close within 70 minutes, here she tussled with Liudmila Samsonova for almost two hours. The duel with her opponent, who had the fastest serve (206 km/h) in the tournament, was complicated by Iga in the second set, when she wasted two breaks.
However, in the closing stages, she played the most important balls on the return line by nailing her forehand shots and twice firing a winner against her opponent's serve.
True, there was probably no key moment in this match that Swiatek needed to secure the win, as her opponent made her journey to the trophy much easier with her nervousness and plenty of unforced errors. But this game must be mentioned, especially because of the emphatic result.
In Wimbledon, the same scoreline has only appeared once before, in 1911. And the last tennis player not to lose a single game in a Grand Slam final was Steffi Graf at Roland Garros in 1988.
Important numbers
6-0 - It's not just that Swiatek didn't lose a single game in the final, equalling the tournament record of Dorothea Lambert Chambers (1911), but she maintained her impressive record in Grand Slam finals.
She has competed in the showpiece event six times and never once felt the disappointment of a defeat. Before her, only Margaret Court and Monica Seles have achieved the same.
35 - That's how many games in seven matches the champion lost on her way to the title. As far as the 21st century is concerned, Swiatek has taken the top spot ahead of Venus Williams, who lost 39 games in 2001.
However, the overall record goes to Martina Navratilova in 1990, who won the famous tournament without losing a set and only dropping 29 games in the process.
78% - Although Swiatek is considered by experts as an exceptional player on return, her numbers on first serve were equally as impressive at Wimbledon.
Out of 245 first serves, she converted 190 into her own points. The serve was more efficient than several taller players with more punchy strokes such as Elena Rybakina (75%).
It took 399 days (since the 2024 French Open) before Swiatek could lift a trophy above her head again. Her Wimbledon triumph may have been surprising, but given the tournament's progress and graduating form, it was ultimately logical.
"The fact that Wimbledon is played on grass makes it more special. I know I can play well at Roland Garros and I prove it every year. I wasn't sure about it here. I had to prove it to myself," the former world number one admitted at the press conference.
