No. 1 Iga Swiatek loses in Wimbledon’s third round to Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan

LONDON (AP) — 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 does on a tennis court.

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

The No. 1-ranked 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 in the third round at the All England Club.

“Going from this 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 only once has made it as far as the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, exiting at that stage a year ago. “All that stuff really combines to me not really having a good time in Wimbledon.”
Not that Swiatek thinks that was the issue against the 35th-ranked Putintseva.

On the contrary, Swiatek described herself as not giving herself enough of a chance to rest after the French Open.

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

Next up for Putintseva is a matchup against 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, who is seeded 13th. Other fourth-round women’s matches: No. 11 Danielle Collins vs. 2021 French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova, 2022 Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina vs. No. 17 Anna Kalinskaya, and No. 21 Elina Svitolina vs. unseeded Wang Xinyu.