Key events
Meanwhile, Swiatek’s love of strawberry pasta has got me thinking about the strangest meals athletes eat (or any of us for that matter). If you’d like to serve up anything, you can get in touch here. My offering: my mother-in-law putting strawberry jam on her roast dinners.
“Hi Katy,” emails Carrie Ilbrey. “Not the final I wanted, but nonetheless I’m looking forward to a cracker. I reckon this is Iga’s big chance. Jazda Iga!”
A huge cheer as the Princess of Wales arrives in the Royal Box – she’ll also be presenting the Venus Rosewater Dish to the winner. The box is also jam packed with Wimbledon champions, including Conchita Martinez, Navratilova and BJK – who’ve both hot-footed it up there after their turn on the BBC.
We’ve still got five minutes until the players appear, so let’s talk tactics. Swiatek is all about her spin and vicious forehand – Anisimova is all about her destructive power and huge backhand. Anisimova, with her big, flat, early ball-striking, will know she’s the kind of player that Swiatek can sometimes struggle against on the faster surfaces, and getting the first strike in and taking time away from Swiatek will be key for the American, even when she’s feeling the nerves in her first slam final. Swiatek tends to produce her best tennis when it matters the most: she’s 5-0 in grand slam finals (with only one of those going to three sets) and won’t mind the pressure of being the favourite.
The BBC is screening emotional montages about Anisimova’s career-saving break from tennis to protect her mental health and about how Swiatek never thought she’d be able to conquer the grass of Wimbledon. Jeez, I’ve already got a tear in my eye and they haven’t even got going yet. Johnny Mac then appears to say he picked Anisimova about 10 days ago to win Wimbledon and is sticking by his prediction. “She’s got the bigger game,” he says.
The head-to-head. I mentioned they’ve not played each other before in the senior ranks (Swiatek and Anisimova that is, definitely not Chrissy, Martina and BJK), despite being born only three months apart, but they did meet as 15-year-old whippersnappers in the 2016 Junior Fed Cup, when Swiatek won in straight sets.
The BBC has brought out the big guns for the final. Chrissy Evert is going for Swiatek to win. Martina Navratilova seems to agree. And Billie Jean King talks about how much it would mean to Swiatek to win grand slam titles on all three surfaces; it certainly was hugely self-affirming to her when she did it in the 1970s, she says.
“Poland has gone completely Wimbledon (and strawberry pasta) mad, with one news channel showing a live cooking class on how to prepare a perfect makaron z truskawkami (with a Michelin-starred chef, no less) to get ready and cheer Swiatek on during the final today,” reports our Europe blogger Jakub Krupa, who’s also helped to serve up this delight on Swiatek’s favourite dish and much more:
Swiatek says:
I never dreamed it would be possible to play in this final … I’m super proud of myself. Tennis keeps surprising me. Every slam final has been totally different. It’s hard to compare these journeys. For now I am enjoying this new feeling of being more comfortable on grass.
Anisimova says:
When I took my break, a lot of people told me that you would never make it to the top again if you take so much time away from the game. That was a little hard to digest because I did want to come back and still achieve a lot and win a grand slam one day. I think it goes to show that it is possible. Just me being able to prove that you can get back to the top if you prioritise yourself has been incredibly special to me.
Iga is such an unbelievable player, but she’s also been an inspiration to me. Hopefully I can bring some high quality tennis and make it a battle out there. I’m going to go out and enjoy every moment and try to not think about what’s on the line.
Road to the final. When Anisimova whitewashed Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-0 in the first round, perhaps we should have known she was going to do something special this fortnight. She dealt well with the pressure of being the favourite in every round until the semi-finals, where she dealt even better with the world No 1 Sabalenka. Swiatek, meanwhile, hasn’t dropped a set since the second round, gaining confidence and momentum as the rounds have gone by on a surface that had previously befuddled her.
Anisimova
First round def Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-0
Second round def Renata Zarazua 6-4, 6-3
Third round def Dalma Galfi 6-3, 5-7, 6-3
Fourth round def Linda Noskova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4
Quarter-final def Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 7-6
Semi-final def Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
Swiatek
First round def Polina Kudermetova 7-5, 6-1
Second round def Caty McNally 5-7, 6-2, 6-1
Third round def Danielle Collins 6-2, 6-3
Fourth round def Clara Tauson 6-4, 6-1
Quarter-final def Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 7-5
Semi-final def Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-0
Tale of the tape
Swiatek – Anisimova
24 Age 23
4 Seeding 13
4 World ranking 12
5 Grand slam titles 0
5 Grand slam finals (before today) 0
22 Singles titles 3
0 Wimbledon finals 0
0 Head-to-head 0
And here’s our match report on the history makers Cash and Glasspool:
Here’s our tennis correspondent Tumaini’s preview of the women’s final:
And his superb interview with Anisimova on her tennis timeout:
There was defeat earlier, however, for Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid in the men’s wheelchair doubles final. The six-times champions were beaten 7-6, 7-5 by Spain’s Martin de la Puente and the Netherlands’ Ruben Spaargaren. Another Brit, Gregory Slade, lost in straight sets in the quad wheelchair doubles final, while the 18-year-old Oliver Bonding is partnering Jagger Leach, the son of the 1999 women’s champion Lindsay Davenport, in the boys’ doubles final. They’re a set up, 7-5, against Finland’s Oskari Paldanius and Poland’s Alan Wazny.
The moment of victory.
Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool are the 2025 Gentlemen’s Doubles Champions! 🏆
With a 6-2, 7-6(3) victory over Rinky Hijikata and David Pel, the pair become the first all-British team to win a Grand Slam men’s doubles title since 1936 🇬🇧
A sensational run at #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/M2Lnc2mB0k
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 12, 2025
And here come the champions. “There was a lot of pressure on our shoulders going into this event, the fact we could do it was so surreal,” says Cash. “We had two goals this year – one was to make it [to the season-ending event in] Turin, another was to win a slam. A lot of people probably wouldn’t have believed us. Our team backed us the whole way. To do it here – it couldn’t mean more. Playing doubles you’re not always on the biggest court, so to play on the biggest and most special court in the world, to do it here? Incredible.”
As for Glasspool, he says: “We’ve given you one British champion [Henry Patten won the Wimbledon men’s doubles title last year with Finland’s Harri Heliovaara], but now we’ve given you two.”
The runners-up speak. “It was our first time speaking on the first day of the tournament,” says Pel. “It’s amazing actually.” Hijikata adds: “It’s been a crazy ride. It’s been so much fun playing with David. It’s a dream come true to be playing out here on Centre Court.”
GB’s Cash and Glasspool win men’s doubles title
Currently on Centre Court: wonderful scenes as Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool celebrate adding their names to the annals of Wimbledon, becoming the first British pair to win the men’s doubles title in 89 years. So it’s been an even longer wait than from Fred Perry in 1936 to Andy Murray in 2013 in the men’s singles. Glasspool and Cash defeated David Pel and Rinky Hijikata, 6-2, 7-6 (3), the Dutch-Australian pairing who hadn’t even met each other before this year’s tournament. What a way for finals weekend to begin.
Preamble
What a difference five weeks can make. Last month Iga Swiatek, overwhelmed by her own doubts, relinquished the French Open crown she’d held since 2022. Her aura of invincibility was shot to pieces. She’d already lost her world No 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka towards the end of last season after testing positive for a substance she’d inadvertently taken in a contaminated medicine; while she was banned for only one month, the mental toll had lasted for much longer. And as she left Paris, having failed to reach a final in 12 months, let alone win a title, it’s fair to say she was at a career low.
Some questioned (me included) if the Pole would ever win another slam; parallels were even drawn with Bjorn Borg’s sudden demise after his period of Wimbledon domination ended in 1981. He retired 18 months later aged 26, burnt out and disillusioned, having lost his relentless will to win. Was Swiatek, at the age of 24, in danger of going the same way? Certainly in the short-term no one expected her to do much at Wimbledon, given that the former Queen of Clay had always been among the mere ranks on grass, having never been beyond the quarter-finals, despite her status as a junior champion in 2018.
But thanks to a grass-court training camp in Mallorca and a confidence-building run to the Bad Homburg final, and fuelled by a Wimbledon diet of strawberries and cream pasta, she has grabbed every opportunity (and towel) that has come her way this fortnight as the players in her half of the draw – most notably Coco Gauff and the former champ Elena Rybakina – departed. At last, Swiatek says, the balls are listening to her on the grass. She looks happy and relaxed. She’s shown more of her personality in the on-court interviews. And she goes into this final as the favourite.
But Amanda Anisimova is enjoying an empowering revival of her own. Having come within a few games of reaching the French Open final as a 17-year-old prodigy in 2019, the American took an eight-month break from the game in 2023 because of burnout. She didn’t even get through Wimbledon qualifying last year. But she held her nerve brilliantly against Aryna Sabalenka in Friday’s semi-final, displaying courage every bit as big as her shots.
She wants this just as much as Swiatek does; victory would be so self-affirming for either. I wish they could split it, but I’m not sure the All England Club would countenance the beautiful Venus Rosewater Dish being cut in half. Add into the mix they’ve never played each other before on tour, and that makes this unexpected final even more intriguing.
Play begins: in a departure from tradition at 4pm BST. And remember you can get in touch in the usual way. It would be great to hear from you.