It’s Iga Świątek, the five-time Grand Slam champion who spent 125 weeks as the world No. 1 between early 2022 and late 2024. She’s the No. 8 seed at Wimbledon, but she’s actually the world No. 4. Only four players are left in the draw now, and she is one of them — for the first time.

The balls kept on listening to Iga Swiatek on Wednesday as the Polish eighth seed walloped Liudmila Samsonova 6-2 7-5 to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time. After years of nightmare outings on tennis' fastest surface,