Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur crash out of Wimbledon on huge day of upsets
Iga Swiatek lost her first match since April as she followed Ons Jabeur out of Wimbledon.
Iga Swiatek was stunned in the third round of Wimbledon as she became the second top player to be upset minutes after two-time runner-up Ons Jabeur crashed out.
The world No. 1 was ousted by Yulia Putintseva 3-6 6-1 6-2. Ranked at No. 35 in the world, the feisty Kazakh was one of the most dangerous unseeded players in the draw.
And she caused shockwaves as she ended Swiatek's 21-match winning streak, which spanned her title victories in Madrid, Rome and the French Open.
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It looked as though Swiatek was on her way to another routine win as she grabbed the opening set in 42 minutes. But the world No. 35 only grew into the match and shook off some early serving problems in the second set as she grabbed a 3-1 advantage.
Swiatek couldn't capitalise on her opportunities to break back and Putintseva stormed through the second set for the loss of just one game, hitting one unforced error to 11 from the Pole. The Kazakh was on a roll and reeled off her ninth straight game to go 4-0 up in the decider.
"It's incredible that she's able to continue this momentum," former champion Ash Barty said on BBC commentary before the 29-year-old put herself one game from victory. Swiatek looked a shadow of her usual self as she served to stay in the match.
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She hit two unforced errors and a double fault but got one more game on the board before Putintseva took her third match point to end Swiatek's Wimbledon campaign in the third round. It's the first time the Kazakh has made the second week at a Slam since the 2020 US Open and she roared in delight.
"I don’t know, really I don’t. I was just so focused on just playing fast and not giving her any time and that worked so that’s pretty much it," Putintseva said when asked how she knocked out the top seed. "I was thinking actually during play that I [beat] a world No. 1 before on grass so maybe it’s meant to be on grass."
As Swiatek suffered her first match loss since April, it also wasn't to be for Jabeur, who has reached the final in the last two editions of Wimbledon, losing to Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova respectively. The No. 10 seed had a tough draw in Elina Svitolina, who stormed into the semi-final 12 months ago.
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Svitolina needed 27 minutes to race through the first set 6-1. But Jabeur raised her level in the second and even had a set point before the Ukrainian forced a tiebreak and went on to win 6-1 7-6(4)
It was a clinical performance from the world No. 21, who finished the match with 20 winners and 12 unforced errors compared to Jabeur's 24 to 31 ratio. "Really tight second set, I was trying to stay focused and a big relief to win the tie-break. Tie-break is always a bit of a lottery," Svitolina said afterwards.
"Not easy to play against such a champion like Ons, she's had two finals here and always very tricky to play on the grass. Important to play one point at a time and I played great tennis here. Really relieved and happy with my performance."