LONDON: World number one Iga Swiatek crashed out of Wimbledon on Saturday, losing to Yulia Putintseva as the top seed’s 21-match win streak came to a shock end in the third round.

The Polish star, who won a fourth French Open and fifth Grand Slam title last month, was stunned 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.

After winning the first set, it appeared business as usual for Swiatek, who went into Saturday’s match with a 4-0 head-to-head record over the 35th ranked Putintseva.

However, the diminutive Putintseva stormed back in the second set on the back of breaks in the fourth and sixth games. Putintseva held her nerve to cruise to a double break and a 4-0 lead in the decider.

Swiatek saved two match points but was defeated on the third when she buried a forehand return into the net. The Pole, who has never got past the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, committed 38 unforced errors to Putintseva’s 15. The Kazakh saved seven of eight break points.

Fifty one weeks after a heartbroken Ons Jabeur trudged off Wimbledon’s Centre Court with tears streaking down her face after a second successive defeat in the final, the tormented Tunisian was left to digest another painful loss on Saturday.

Jabeur’s long cherished dream to hold aloft the Venus Rosewater Dish was dashed for at least another year following a 6-1, 7-6 (4) defeat by Elina Svitolina in the third round.

The popular Tunisian could have been 2-0 up right at the start as he had a break point in Svitolina’s opening service game and a game point in the next.

Instead it was Ukrainian 21st seed Svitolina who struck the killer blows early to open up a 2-0 lead and she never moved her eye off the ball as she romped through to bag the first set after Jabeur tamely netted a service return on set point. The 10th seed managed to put up more of a fight in the second set and even had set point at 6-5 up on Svitolina’s serve.

Latvian 13th seed Jelena Ostapenko beat American Bernarda Pera 6-1, 6-3 to reach the fourth round, where she will play Putinseva. Meanwhile, Russian 17th seed Anna Kalinskaya beat compatriot Liudmila Samsonova, seeded 15, 7-6 (4), 6-2 to advance.

ZVEREV SURVIVES INJURY SCARE

On the men’s side, fourth seed Alexander Zverev survived an injury scare and an epic third-set tiebreak to beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie and match his best Wimbledon run by reaching the fourth round.

The German produced a sensational display of serving to win 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (15) — finally ending Norrie’s rugged resistance by converting his sixth match point under the Centre Court roof.

Zverev, 27, dropped only two points on serve in the third set, although one of them was a double-fault that gave Norrie an early advantage in what proved to be a gripping tiebreak.

Norrie had five set points of his own to extend the contest and ask questions of Zverev’s knee which he appeared to strain when sliding and falling awkwardly early in the second set.

But Zverev, who struck the ball with clinical precision throughout the contest, never wavered and Norrie cracked first on the 32nd point of the tiebreak, sending a shot over the baseline to end British interest in the men’s singles.

Zverev needed regular treatment after injuring his knee while chasing own a drop shot in the fourth game of the second set and appeared hampered at times.

But he showed great focus, serving magnificently and striking his groundstrokes with venom to largely control the contest against the world number 42.

Norrie could make little impression on Zverev’s metronomic serving but got the crowd roaring as he pushed the classy German into the tiebreak in the third set.

An incredible conclusion to the match saw 29 of the first 31 points of the breaker go with serve and it was a case of which player would blink first.

Norrie played his best tennis in the breaker and raised the decibel level when he brought up his fifth set point with an ace.

But Zverev fended that off with a volley and when his next chance came along he took it.

American 14th seed and U.S. Open semi-finalist Ben Shelton beat Canada’s Denis Shapovalov 6-7(4) 6-2 6-4 4-6 6-2 to reach the fourth round where the 21-year-old will face top seed Jannik Sinner, breezed past unseeded Serb Miomir Kecmanovic 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 late on Friday.

MURRAY’S WIMBLEDON CAREER ENDS

Andy Murray’s iconic Wimbledon career ended with a whimper on Saturday when his mixed doubles partner Emma Raducanu pulled out of the event, denying the former champion one last appearance at the All England Club. Murray was due to have a final Wimbledon swansong with fellow Briton Raducanu after losing in the men’s doubles with his brother Jamie on Thursday.

The 37-year-old is set to retire following the Paris Olympics, which start on July 26.

Murray, a two-time Wimbledon champion, and Raducanu, who won the US Open in 2021, were scheduled to play Zhang Shuai and Marcelo Arevalo in the fourth match on Court One on Saturday.

But Raducanu withdrew several hours before the match in a bid to ensure she did not aggravate a wrist problem.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2024