Iga Swiatek defeat was coming but vanquisher surprises

James Richardson
July 3, 2022

Former World No 1 Mats Wilander believes that Iga Swiatek’s winning streak had run out of steam and its end wasn’t a huge surprise even if the opponent who toppled her was extremely unfancied.

French journeywoman Alize Cornet was the one to topple Swiatek in an anti-climactic straight-sets win in the Wimbledon third round.

The win allows Cornet to match her best performance but on the other hand, Swiatek can now refocus on her next target as the reigning WTA Tour No 1.

“I’m kind of shocked,” said Eurosport tennis expert Mats Wilander after the loss.

“I thought that there was a chance she wasn’t going to win Wimbledon, but the type of opponent I thought she would struggle against was not going to be someone like Alize Cornet.”

Wilander thought it might be a big-serving player who brought Swiatek’s Wimbledon hopes crashing down.

“Cornet puts a lot of balls back in play but doesn’t hit that hard. I think that it’s down to at least Cornet’s fighting spirit.

“But also you have to put yourself in Iga’s mindset. She’s getting closer to losing every match she played. And we were just saying before she’s most probably going to thank god and think, ‘let me get out of here. Now I don’t want to play any more tennis for a while’.

“So it is sad, it’s a big moment. And she now is stuck at 37 wins in a row with Martina Hingis.”

Swiatek claimed titles at Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and Roland Garros during the four-month winning run.

Cornet does have some history with third-round upsets, having also beaten Serena Williams at the same stage back in 2014.

In 2014, Cornet wasn’t able to follow up the huge win with another positive result.

She reached her first career Grand Slam quarterfinal in Melbourne earlier this year and will bid for another last eight visit when she meets Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović in the Round of 16 on Monday.

It is unclear when Swiatek will return to WTA Tour action but she is expected to make the field for her home event, the Poland Open, which gets underway on 25 July.

Iga Swiatek