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World number one Iga Swiatek has admitted she has no more strength left after suffering yet another heartbreaking defeat at Wimbledon, losing in the third round to Yulia Putintseva.
Swiatek was on a 21-match winning streak and looked certain to progress to the last 16 after winning the first set, but the Kazakh player fought back with a brilliant second set, breaking twice.
Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion, stormed off the court before the final and was booed by an annoyed crowd when she finally returned.
This seemed to kill the momentum for the top seed, as Putintseva held on to her third match point to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
“It felt like all of a sudden my tank of pushing myself to the limit was empty. It was a bit of a surprise but after Roland Garros I know what I did wrong,” Swiatek said.
“I didn’t rest properly. I won’t make that mistake again. It’s been a tough season on clay and I definitely need to recover.”
“Next year I’m going to take a break (after the French Open) and literally do nothing.”
While Swiatek again fell short at Wimbledon, 30th seed Putintseva celebrated an unforgettable victory on grass against one of the best players in the world.
History repeated itself for the Moscow-born Putintseva when she defeated world number two Naomi Osaka in the first round in 2019.
Putintseva broke Swiatek’s play twice in the third set and admitted her exceptional level may have been sparked by boredom while waiting on Court 1 for the Pole to return from a toilet break.
The world number 35 added: “It was a bit frustrating but she was off the court for a long time.
“I don’t know what the rules are. She just went for a bathroom break. I don’t know what happened or how long she was taking a bathroom break.”
“Honestly, at one point I was getting very bored. I thought she was coming. Then I’d move, I’d move, she’s not there. I’d move again, she’s not there. It was getting a bit boring.
“Then I was really excited because I played really well in the third set. I wasn’t rushing it.
“I’m so proud that I stepped in and did it.”
There were plenty of other shocking events in the top half of the women’s competition. Ons Jabeur, runner-up in the past two championships, lost in straight sets to Elina Svitolina after 80 minutes on Centre Court.
Svitolina is a semi-finalist in 2023 and was happy to continue attending the tournament as a family after her husband, Gael Monfils, was eliminated on Friday by Grigor Dimitrov.
“Today was a bit of a strange story for us as a family. We were disappointed that Gael lost,” Svitolina said in an on-court interview after her 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory.
“It’s great to have Gael supporting me and being there for me today, it’s very special.”
Elena Rybakina wasted little time against Caroline Wozniacki on Court 1, winning 6-0, 6-1 in 57 minutes.
Fourth-seeded Rybakina, who won Wimbledon in 2022, beat Lyudmila Samsonova in a rain-affected match on Court 18 and will next face Anna Kalinskaya.
Jelena Ostapenko and Barbora Krejcikova also won consecutive matches to book their places in the round of 16, while Wang Xinyu defeated Britain’s No. 2 Harriet Dart in three sets and No. 11 Danielle Collins won 12 of her last 16 matches to knock out Beatrice Haddad Maia.