Swiatek crashes out in third round with error-strewn display

LONDON — After putting one shot into the net, Iga Swiatek muttered to herself. After another point went awry, she placed her hand over her mouth. Generally, she looked as flustered as she ever has on a tennis court.

Once again, she went from unbeatable on the French Open's red clay to underwhelming on Wimbledon's green grass.

World No 1 Swiatek's 21-match winning streak ended with a listless performance and a slew of mistakes on Saturday, adding up to a 3-6, 6-1,6-2 loss to unseeded Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in the third round at the All England Club.

The 23-year-old from Poland is a five-time Grand Slam champion, including one on the hard courts at the US Open and four titles at Roland Garros — the most recent coming last month.

"Going from the 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 has only once made it as far as the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, exiting at that stage a year ago.

"All that stuff really combines to make me not really have a good time at Wimbledon."

She never does. In 2022, for example, her 37-match unbeaten run was stopped with another third-round loss at the All England Club, that time at the hands of Alize Cornet of France.

Swiatek has talked about looking forward to improving on grass, but, last month, she decided to withdraw 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 says she did not give herself enough of a chance to rest after the French Open.

"My tank for really pushing myself to the limits became, suddenly, empty," she said. "I was kind of surprised."

After a mediocre first set, Swiatek faded against Putintseva, making mistake after mistake.

Swiatek had not only won all four previous meetings against Putintseva, but also claimed every set they had played. Asked during a post-match interview on Court No 1 how she managed to emerge with the victory, the oft-animated Putintseva replied: "I don't know. Really, I don't."

Well, there is at least one key reason: Swiatek looked very little like someone who has led the WTA rankings nearly every week since April 2022 and is assured of remaining there no matter what happens at Wimbledon.

Still, this was her characterization of this week: "I felt like I underachieved a little bit. 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."

Putintseva is on an eight-match run of her own, all on grass, including a title in Birmingham before arriving in London. This is the first time in 10 appearances at Wimbledon that the 29-year-old has 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 fearlessly. I was just: 'I can do it. I have to believe 100 percent. I have nothing to lose. Just go for it,'" Putintseva said at a news conference. "Also, my coach told me, 'no matter which shot you're playing, believe 100 percent'."

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.

Next up for Putintseva is a match against 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who is seeded 13th.

Also moving into the fourth round were 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, 2021 French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova, world No 17 Anna Kalinskaya, No 21 Elina Svitolina and unseeded Wang Xinyu.

Svitolina advanced with a 6-1, 7-6(4) victory over No 10 Ons Jabeur, a three-time Grand Slam runner-up, including at Wimbledon each of the past two years.

Agencies Via Xinhua