Iga Swiatek admitted she was running on empty at Wimbledon as the exhausted world number one suffered a shock third round defeat against Yulia Putintseva on a day when Andy Murray’s career at the All England Club came to an end.
Top seed Swiatek’s 21-match winning streak came to a stunning end on Court One as Russian-born Kazakh Putintseva battled to a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory.
Murray’s iconic Wimbledon career ended with a whimper 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.
Swiatek won a fourth French Open and fifth Grand Slam title last month, but she felt the strain of that clay-court triumph by the time she arrived at the All England Club.
Unable to summon up the energy required to subdue the feisty Putintseva, the Polish star once again flopped at Wimbledon, where she has never gone beyond the quarter-finals.
“For sure, I felt like my energy level went down little bit in the second set. I couldn’t really get back up,” she said.
“My tank of really pushing myself to the limits became suddenly empty. I was kind of surprised. But I know what I did wrong after Roland Garros. I didn’t really rest properly.
“I’m not going to make this mistake again. After such a tough clay court season, I really must have my recovery.
“I need to recover better after the clay court season, both physically and mentally. Maybe next year I’m going to take a vacation and literally just do nothing.”
Swiatek, a four-time French Open winner, has never thrived on the All England Club grass.
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 destroyed for at least another year following a brutal 6-1 7-6(4) defeat by Elina Svitolina in the third round.
“Not easy to play against such a champion like Ons, she’s had two great finals here and always very tricky to play her on the grass,” Svitolina said in a courtside interview.
“I played great tennis. Really happy with the way I handled some tough moments today and with my performance.”
Meanwhile in men’s singles, 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 for the third time on Saturday.
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.
Last year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist Daniil Medvedev endured lengthy rain delays and a fightback from unseeded German Jan-Lennard Struff for a 6-1 6-3 4-6 7-6(3) victory to reach the fourth round on Saturday.