When the body count began rising among Wimbledon women's seeds, one big name looked more vulnerable than most. Iga Swiatek, the recently dethroned Queen of Clay, has rarely looked like royalty on grass.
She was a Wimbledon junior champion, so the potential is there, but as an adult in five previous attempts, the four-time French Open winner has only twice made it into the second week at Wimbledon, and never beyond the quarter-finals.
So when she lost the first set to American Caty McNally on Centre Court on Thursday in their second-round clash, there were plenty of sages intimating they knew what was coming.
Swiatek, however, kept her composure, cut out the errors, and ruthlessly dissected her childhood friend -- they had won the 2018 French junior girls doubles together -- 5-7 6-2 6-1.
"I started the match well so I knew my game was there," she said. "I lost it for a while, made some errors that shouldn't happen and Caty used that," said Swiatek.
"I knew that at the start of the second set I had to be more accurate. I just tried to improve and I'm happy it worked."
Swiatek came to London off the back of finishing runner-up in the Bad Homburg tournament in Germany, but added: "The court is totally different, so it's not easy to adjust. It's not that bad I played three sets as it gave me more time on court."
Another American, Danielle Collins, is next up for the Pole. In theory it is a good draw. The 2022 Australian Open runner-up has never been beyond the fourth round in six attempts at Wimbledon, and only reached the second week once.
But there are few certainties in the women's draw this year. With the second, third, fourth and fifth seeds already out, Swiatek is the second highest seed left in her half of the draw with only Mirra Andreeva ahead of her.
The teenage seventh seed, the youngest player left in the draw, also progressed on Thursday, cruising the first set against Lucia Bronzetti in 23 minutes but taking more than thrice as long to win the second, winning 6-1 7-6 (7-4).
The Italian had two break points to force a third set at 6-5 but Andreeva denied her and now faces Hailey Baptiste.
The exodus of leading seeds has enhanced the chances of defending champion Barbora Krejcikova, seeded 17th after an injury-hit year.
The Czech Republic beat Caroline Dolehide 6-4 3-6 6-2 to set up a tie with another American, 10th seed Emma Navarro who brushed aside Veronika Kudermetova 6-1 6-2 .
The 2022 champion, 11th seed Elena Rybakina, also moved into the last 32 after beating Greece's Maria Sakkari 6-3 6-1.
"It means a lot to be back. A lot of great memories. I want to do well this year too," said the Kazakh.
She added of the upsets, "Grass is very special. The season is quite short and not everyone can adapt quickly."
Maybe, having only reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros this year, Swiatek's extra couple of days switching from clay to grass will make the difference.
