The world’s top-ranked feminine participant continued her grasscourt nightmare at Wimbledon, shedding in three units to Yulia Putintseva.
Iga Swiatek has by no means had a lot affection for grass and any hope that this 12 months’s Wimbledon would kindle a blossoming love affair for the floor went up in flames because the world primary was despatched tumbling out in a 3-6 6-1 6-2 defeat by Yulia Putintseva.
On paper, the fiery Thirty fifth-ranked Kazakh ought to have been straightforward pickings for the top-seeded Swiatek on Saturday, who had not dropped a set of their earlier 4 conferences and got here into the encounter on a 21-match profitable streak that included banking a fifth grand slam title on the French Open.
But slick grass courts simply don’t swimsuit Swiatek and in a cauldron ambiance on Courtroom One, Swiatek disintegrated below enormous stress from Putintseva, who dusted herself down after shedding the primary set to launch an attacking barrage that the Pole couldn’t include.
The large Swiatek groundstrokes that had inflicted a lot punishment within the opener had been now being returned with curiosity, whereas the Pole’s motion appeared instantly sluggish, her toes a fraction of a second slower to regulate to the ball.
Putintseva broke twice within the second set and twice extra within the third earlier than sealing a three-set victory to arrange a fourth-round conflict in opposition to Jelena Ostapenko.
For Swiatek, it was one more disappointment at Wimbledon, the place final 12 months’s run to the quarterfinals stays her finest effort.
It was not, due to this fact, as massive a shock as it could have appeared. None of her 22 singles titles has come on grass, a floor on which she has by no means even reached a closing.