World primary Iga Swiatek crashed out of Wimbledon on Saturday, dropping to Yulia Putintseva as the highest seed’s 21-match win streak got here to a shock finish within the third spherical. The Polish star, who received a fourth French Open and fifth Grand Slam title final month, was surprised 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 by the Russian-born Kazakh, who goes on to face the equally fiery Jelena Ostapenko for a quarter-final place. “Feels nice, I used to be simply so targeted on simply taking part in quick and never giving her any time and that is just about it,” mentioned 29-year-old Putintseva after her win on Court docket One.
“I used to be considering in the course of the match that I had already overwhelmed a world primary on grass so I feel it was meant to be,” she added, recalling her win over Naomi Osaka in Birmingham in 2019.
“That is loopy guys, it was nice vitality from all of you and I used to be making an attempt to entertain you increasingly more with my photographs and I used to be taking vitality from you guys.”
After profitable the primary set, it appeared enterprise as traditional for Swiatek, who went into Saturday’s match with a 4-0 head-to-head report over the thirty fifth ranked Putintseva.
Nevertheless, the diminutive Putintseva stormed again within the second set on the again of breaks within the fourth and sixth video games.
Putintseva held her nerve to cruise to a double break and a 4-0 lead within the decider.
Swiatek saved two match factors however was defeated on the third when she buried a forehand return into the web.
The Pole, who has by no means obtained previous the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, dedicated 38 unforced errors to Putintseva’s 15. The Kazakh saved seven of eight break factors.
It was solely the fourth time within the Open period that the Wimbledon prime seed had misplaced within the third spherical.
That destiny befell Ana Ivanovic in 2008, Serena Williams in 2014, Simona Halep in 2018 and Swiatek, who was surprised by Alize Cornet on the identical stage two years in the past.
Putintseva, a three-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist, prolonged her grass-court streak this yr to eight wins and no defeats after profitable the Birmingham title final month.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
Subjects talked about on this article
