Saturday proved to be a day of upsets and heart-break as both Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur made early exits from The Championships at the hands of Yulia Putintseva and Elina Svitolina respectively, while Harriet Dart squandered her chances and bowed out to Wang Xinyu (reported elsewhere).
Iga Swiatek, the 23-year old World No 1 from Poland, squandered her own 1 set lead and went down to Putintseva, ranked 35 and from Kazakhstan, 3-6 6-1 6-2.
Later, the top seed summed up her frustration after her 3rd-round loss in an hour and 59 minutes on No 1 Court, which saw her 21-match win streak come to an untimely end, 19 of which were built on her favoured clay.
“For me, going from this kind of tennis, where I felt like I’m playing the best tennis in my life, to another surface where I kind of struggle a little bit more, it’s not easy,” Swiatek told reporters after the loss, reflecting on losing 12 of the next 15 games after winning the first set.
“All that stuff really combines to me not really having a good time in Wimbledon [laughing], but again, I feel like I’m gonna do a better job at recording. If I would have more energy going into the tournament, I can work through that, and focus on the right stuff.”
The dominant force on the Hologic WTA Tour, Swiatek has won more than anyone else over the last 3 seasons, and, just 4 weeks ago, she captured her 3rd consecutive Roland Garros title and 5th Grand Slam overall, but Wimbledon still eludes her, the only Major at which she has yet to make it past the quarter-finals, which she has done just once.
In 2022, she saw her 37-match win streak end in the 3rd-round to Alizé Cornet, while, last year, she played a pre-Wimbledon warm-up tournament and went on to post her best result so far in the Last 8.
This year, though, she did not play a pre-event, and didn’t do much resting.
“My tank of really pushing myself to the limits became suddenly, like, empty,” Swiatek admitted. “I was, kind of, surprised. But I know what I did wrong after Roland Garros. I didn’t really rest properly. I’m not going to make this mistake again.
“After such a tough clay court season, I really must have my recovery. Maybe that’s also the reason.”
Putintseva, who has a bit of a reputation for spoiling the party but had not managed to beat Swiatek in 4 prior meetings, claimed to have wrestled control of the match, rather than Swiatek giving it away.
“I’m happy, extra happy, because she didn’t lose it, I took it,” Putintseva said. “I was playing really well. This is for me the most important.”
Ahead of this year’s tournament, Putintseva held a 5-9 record at Wimbledon, and had never progressed beyond the 2nd-round, but the Kazakh proved she can play on grass when she won the title at Birmingham, and has now reached the 4th round here for the first time
It feels great. It feels really great. I don’t know,” the 5ft 4in Putintseva said in her on-court interview. “I was so focused on just playing fast, and not giving her time. That worked, so that’s pretty much it. I was thinking, while I was playing, that I beat the World No 1 before on grass. I think it’s meant to be.
Back in 2019, Putintseva beat the then World No 1 Naomi Osaka on grass in Birmingham.
Putintseva certainly looked the sharper of the two on Saturday, racing around the court and rushing Swiatek, taking away her rhythm, and the Pole ended up with an extremely high 37 unforced errors compared to the Kazakh’s 15.
The Kazakh proved the more dogged, though painting the lines and hanging in the rallies long enough to force Swiatek into errors, and she bettered the Pole in all the other stat categories.
Swiatek will remain the World No 1 whatever Coco Gauff, the 2nd seed, does the rest of the fortnight, and she will now turn her attention to the Paris Olympics, where she will be the overwhelming favourite to win the gold medal, back on her favourite clay at her most successful venue.
When pushed on what she meant by not resting properly, Swiatek replies: “I literally came back to work — not tennis-wise, but off-court stuff — and I shouldn’t have done that. Maybe next year I’m going to take a vacation and literally just do nothing.”
Swiatek said she wasn’t referring here to commercial commitments.
No. Off-court stuff, my stuff. We planned the year that way, so I don’t have to do a lot before the Olympics.”
