Shot at Wimbledon: Iga Swiatek falls and his impressive streak is over

Iga Swiatek’s impressive streak of streak victories, totaling 37 wins and six titles in 136 days, ended this Saturday as the world number one lost 6-4, 6-2 to France’s Alizé Cornet in a match corresponding to the third round of Wimbledon.

The Pole was far from her best version, the one that had allowed her to become the absolute dominatrix of the women’s circuit since the withdrawal of the Australian Ashleigh Barty: she made 33 unforced errors, especially with the drive, she failed a lot with her first serve and gave too many break opportunities that his opponent was able to exploit (he used five of the six he had).

The 32-year-old Frenchwoman, 37th in the WTA rankings, won the first chapter after 51 minutes of hard battle. At the beginning of the second half, Swiatek rises 2-0 and 40-15 in service. It seemed that everything was returning to normal, but the best player of the moment entered a deep rut and her rival did not forgive her: since then she has won 24 points out of 27, chained six games and was victorious after 93 minutes of game.

The Frenchwoman thus obtained her fourth victory against a world number one (in 2014 she had beaten Serena Williams three times, one of which at Wimbledon) and equaled her best performance on the London field (she had also reached the eighth final in 2014) in a year in which the Grand Slams are doing him well: he reached the quarter-finals in Australia and the third round at Roland Garros.

“These matches are the ones that inspire me. I am a huge fan of Iga, she is an amazing player and a great ambassador of women’s tennis, so I am proud to have beaten her. If there was a time to do it, it was this and on grass, ”said Cornet, who is playing his 62nd consecutive Grand Slam event (not missing from the 2006 US Open).

“I’m playing the best tennis of my career, I’m having fun and my body is almost perfect. They are like good wine, which ages well ”, assured the gala veteran, who on the next occasion will face Australian Ajla Tomljanovic (44th in the standings), winner of Czech Barbora Krejcikova (14th).

For Swiatek, this was the first loss since he suffered 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) against Latvian Jelena Ostapenko on February 16 in the round of 16 of the Dubai tournament. Since then she had scored 37 straight wins and kept trophies in Doha, Indian Wells and Miami on hard courts and in Stuttgart, Rome and Paris on clay.

The victory he had on Thursday against Dutchman Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove allowed him to equal the streak of 37 successes in a row that the Swiss Martina Hingis has enshrined since 1997. But the crash against Cornet will prevent him from continuing to run after Chris’s record. Evert (55), Margaret Court (57), Steffi Graf (66) and Martina Navratilova (74).

The Polish was not the only favorite to greet the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club this Saturday: the Americans Coco Gauff (against her compatriot Amanda Anisimova) and Jessica Pegula (against the Croatian Petra Martic) also lost. Instead, the Spanish Paula Badosa (defeat on the Czech Petra Kvitova) and the Romanian Simona Halep (defeat on the Polish Magdalena Frech) advance.