NEW YORK — Iga Swiatek had an easy start to her quest to win the US Open and Wimbledon in the same year, needing just an hour to beat Emiliana Arango 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday.
The No. 2-seeded Swiatek won the point on 23 of 26 first serves and had a 26-5 advantage in winners in the opening match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Not only did she never face a break point, she wasn’t even taken to deuce in any of her eight service games.
Swiatek went nearly a week between matches after losing in the mixed doubles championship match with Casper Ruud last Wednesday night. But her rhythm came right back in a dominant start to the tournament.
“For sure it was a solid match and I’m happy that I wasn’t trying to overpower, but I was just solid,” Swiatek said.
The 24-year-old from Poland continued her dominance against unranked opponents in majors this season; she is 12-0 and has won 24 of a possible 25 sets played. Arango, who was making her debut at Flushing Meadows, fell to 1-3 at Slams this year.
After going more than a year without a WTA title and falling as low as No. 8 in the world in June, Swiatek has found her groove. She has won 18 of her last 20 matches since the conclusion of the French Open, with titles at Wimbledon and Cincinnati.
Swiatek improved to 26-1 in first-round matches at majors, tied with Serena Williams for the fourth-best win percentage in opening matches by any woman in the Open era (minimum 25 matches).
She has now won 50 tour-level matches this season; only Carlos Alcaraz (55) and Aryna Sabalenka (51) have won more in 2025.
A second title for the 2022 champion at Flushing Meadows would make her the first woman to win Wimbledon and the US Open in the same year since Williams in 2012.
Swiatek also has a chance to regain the No. 1 ranking if she wins the title and Sabalenka loses before the quarterfinals.
After the match, Swiatek quickly found out that Taylor Swift had become engaged to boyfriend Travis Kelce, a topic that dominated her news conference.
“She posted when I finished,” Swiatek said. “Maybe that’s not a coincidence, I don’t know.”
Swiatek has been a devoted Swiftie for more than a decade, got a handwritten note from the singer while attending an Eras Tour concert shortly after winning the 2024 French Open and knows her way around Swift’s music just as well as she does the court.
“Obviously she had a lot of boyfriends, so we know all about that. So hopefully this one will, you know, stick forever,” Swiatek said. “Travis seems like a great guy. She seems super happy, so I’m happy for her.”
Swiatek was puzzled when some reporters laughed at the number of Swift questions she received, and jokingly denied a request to tackle an actual tennis one.
In other women’s singles first-round results, No. 27 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine defeated Britain’s Katie Boulter 6-4, 6-4, and Australian Maya Joint got past Andorra’s Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva 6-4, 7-6 (6). Also advancing in straight sets was the Netherlands’ Suzan Lamens, who took down American Valerie Glozman.
Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (18) was another seeded player to move into the second round, needing three sets to put away Britain’s Sonay Kartal 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.
American Amanda Anisimova, the runner-up to Swiatek at Wimbledon, defeated Kimberly Birrell 6-3, 6-2.
ESPN Research, The Associated Press and ESPN’s D’Arcy Maine contributed to this report.
