WIMBLEDON, England –
Leader Iga Swiatek had been unbeaten since February and certainly looked unbeatable with 37 straight wins and six straight tournament titles.
She has never been as comfortable on grass pitches as she is on other surfaces, however, and a Saturday fraught with errors sent Swiatek 37th from Wimbledon in the third round with a 4-6, 6-2 loss to France’s Alize Cornet.
“I know I didn’t play good tennis. I was quite confused about my tactics,” said Swiatek, a two-time French Open champion who has never progressed past the fourth round at the All England Club. “Sure, it wasn’t a good performance for me.”
Not only the winner of the match was unexpected. It was also as one-sided as that one-sided encounter of 1 hour and 33 minutes.
“I live for this kind of match, I practice for it every day,” said Cornet. “It really drives me. I knew I could do it. Somehow I had this belief.”
No woman had won as many matches in a row as Swiatek since Martina Hingis also had a streak of 37 in 1997.
But immediately, it seemed, this would not be Swiatek’s day.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
She quickly fell 3-0 down on Court No. 1 on a cool, windy afternoon and of Cornet’s first 14 points, nine came from unforced errors from the 21-year-old Poland’s racket. Only one came via a winner produced by Cornet himself.
Swiatek was usually so crisp with her shots and so calm with her demeanor that she wasn’t exactly comfortable on either count. After a missed forehand return, she smacked the toe of her right shoe with her racquet.
In the end, Swiatek had made 33 unforced errors – a whopping 26 more than Cornet. And Swiatek’s powerful forehand produced nine winners, just two more than Cornet.
This isn’t the first surprise result Cornet has had at the All England Club. The only other time she reached the fourth round in the grass grand slam tournament was in 2014 when she eliminated major singles champion Serena Williams.
“I have no words at the moment. It reminds me of the time I defeated Serena on the same court, exactly eight years ago,” Cornet said. “This court is a lucky charm for me.”
As the match ended – appropriately when Swiatek netted a forehand – Cornet raised her arms and smiled as widely as possible.
Cornet is a 32-year-old who reached her first quarter-final in 63 appearances at majors by getting that far at the Australian Open in January. Now she is just one win away from going that far again and next meets unseeded Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia.
“I’m like fine wine,” said Cornet. “Good wine always ages well.”
Tomljanovic, a quarter-finalist at the All England Club a year ago, eliminated 2021 French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova 2-6 6-4 6-3.
In a contest between two young Americans — and a rematch of the 2017 US Open junior final — No. 20 seeded Amanda Anisimova returned to No. 11 Coco Gauff 6-7(4) 6-2 6-1 on center court.
Gauff, who is 18 and lost to Swiatek in the final at Roland Garros last month, led 3-0 at the start before 20-year-old Anisimova’s powerful baseline game finally prevailed. Anisimova brought that first set to a tie break, which she then led 4-1, but Gauff snagged the next half-dozen points.
That could have caused trouble for Anisimova. She didn’t let that derail her. Instead, she continued to take control of the groundstroke changes while doing a fantastic job handling Gauff’s serve, which hit 123mph on Saturday.
Overall, Anisimova won more than half of Gauff’s service games and saved 10 of the 13 break points she faced.
After entering 2022 with a record of 11-23 in sets of three, Anisimova has won 13-6 this season and leads the Tour with most wins in games going the distance.
As Anisimova wrapped up the win, she flopped on her back on the court, covering her face with both hands, then stood up to blow kisses to the crowd and wipe away tears.
Next up for Anisimova is a match against Harmony Tan, who is making her Wimbledon debut after beating Williams in the first round last Tuesday.
Other women’s four-round matches on Monday include No.17 Elena Rybakina vs. Petra Martic and 2019 champion Simona Halep vs. No.4 Paula Badosa, who defeated two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 7-5, 7-6 (4) .
A total of four American men are through to the All England Club’s Round of 16 for the first time since 1999 after wins for No. 11 Taylor Fritz and unseeded Brandon Nakashima on Saturday. They join No. 23 Frances Tiafoe and No. 30 Tommy Paul, who advanced a day earlier.