Iga Swiatek's pursuit to advance past the quarterfinals on the Wimbledon grass will have to wait another year as the world No.1 was knocked out by Yelena Putintseva.
Swiatek's 21-match winning streak ended with a listless performance and a slew of mistakes on Sunday (AEST), adding up to a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 loss to unseeded Putintseva in the third round at the All England Club.
After putting one shot into the net, Swiatek muttered to herself. After another point went awry, she placed her hand over her mouth. Generally, she looked as flustered as she ever does on a tennis court.
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From being unbeatable on red clay of Roland-Garros to underwhelming on the grass, Swiatek is just the second woman in the Open Era to lose multiple matches as the top seed before the round of 16.
“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,” said Swiatek, who only once has made it as far as the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
“All that stuff really combines to me not really having a good time in Wimbledon.”
In 2022, her 37-match unbeaten run was stopped with another third-round loss at the All England Club a the hands of Alize Cornet.
Swiatek, a 23-year-old from Poland, is a five-time Grand Slam champion, including four titles at Roland Garros – most recently last month – and one on the hard courts at the US Open.
She has talked about looking forward to improving on grass, but she decided to withdraw last month from the only tuneup event that was originally on her schedule before Wimbledon.
Not that Swiatek thinks that was the issue against the 35th-ranked Putintseva.
On the contrary, Swiatek described herself as not giving herself enough of a chance to rest after the French Open.
“My tank of really pushing myself to the limits became, suddenly, empty,” she said.
“I was kind of surprised.”
Next up for Putintseva is a matchup against 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, who is seeded 13th.
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Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic wrapped up the day's action at Centre Court by coming back from a set down to defeat Alexei Popyrin in four sets.
After a ho-hum first set, Swiatek faded against Putintseva, making mistake after mistake.
Swiatek not only won all four previous meetings against Putintseva, but also claimed every set they had played.
Asked during a post match interview on No.1 Court how she managed to emerge with the victory, the often-animated Putintseva replied: "I don’t know. Really, I don’t."
Well, here is at least one key part of what happened: Swiatek looked very little like someone who has led the WTA rankings for nearly every week since April 2022 and is assured of remaining there no matter what happens the rest of the way at Wimbledon.
Putintseva is on an eight-match run of her own, all on grass, including a title at Birmingham before arriving in London. This is the first time in 10 appearances at Wimbledon that the 29-year-old from Kazakhstan made it past the second round.
Her best showing at any Slam was getting to the quarterfinals at the French Open twice and US Open once.
“I was playing fearless. I was just: ‘I can do it. I have to believe 100 per cent. I have nothing to lose. Just go for it,’” Putintseva said.
“Also, my coach told me, ‘No matter which shot you’re doing, believe 100 per cent’.”
When she was building a 4-0 lead in the last set by grabbing 16 of its first 19 points, Putintseva only needed to produce two winners. Her other 14 points in that span were gained thanks to either unforced errors (seven) or forced errors (seven) off Swiatek’s racket.
By the end, Swiatek had accumulated 38 unforced errors, more than twice as many as her opponent's 15.
“I felt like I underachieved a little bit," Swiatek said.
"But it’s tennis, so you have to move on. I’ll have many more chances this year to show my game.
"I’ll just focus on that.”
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