Iga Swiatek says Wimbledon loss is ‘hard to accept’ as she vows to go back to basics
Iga Swiatek says that her third-round Wimbledon defeat is ‘tough to accept’ and that she plans to go back to basics rather than focus too intensely on results.
The Pole arrived at the grass-court Grand Slam as the defending champion but was comprehensively outplayed by Alexandra Eala, who claimed a 7-6(9), 6-2 victory in their last-32 clash.
Swiatek held two set points and secured an early break in the opening set, but a tightly contested tiebreak swung the momentum firmly in Eala’s favour.
Eala, renowned for her dogged determination and ability to outmanoeuvre opponents, consistently drew cheap forehand unforced errors from the former world No 1 at crucial moments.
The final game featured six deuces before the Filipina produced a stunning cross-court forehand winner to seal a historic victory.
Eala has now amassed seven top-10 wins and has become the first Filipina to reach the second week of a Grand Slam.
She also leads her head-to-head against Swiatek 2-1, having beaten the five-time Grand Slam champion at the Miami Open in 2025, while Swiatek’s sole victory came later that year at the Madrid Open.
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“I think it was tougher mentally for me to accept these missed returns from the slow serves,” said Swiatek during her post-match press conference.
“I got to say it’s much tougher to return a serve like that than a normal serve.
“I know it was slow. I know exactly how it’s going to come to me.
“It’s such a different rhythm than what I usually have a chance to return. The first serve, I mean, it was a good fight and I know that it’s hard, such a long set.
“I know that one ball here or there could change a lot.
“But I wanted to be present in the second set. I made some unforced errors at the beginning.
“Then, yeah, I felt like she was serving slower and slower, and it became tougher and tougher for me to return these serves. That, for me, was hard to accept, yeah.”
As a result of the defeat, Swiatek will lose 1870 ranking points and drop out of the WTA top five for the first time in 13 months.
The Pole has reached the Wimbledon semi-finals just once in seven appearances, en route to winning the title in 2025, and has now failed to make the last four at each of the past four Grand Slams.
Swiatek has also gone 12 months without winning a singles title.
“Well, yeah, you need to trust the process, for sure,” she added.
“Honestly, I don’t care anymore about the results. I’ve been so focused on them that it’s hard to continue like that.
“So I’m really trying to, like, let it go. I don’t have good results, so I’m not going to expect for myself good results because they’re just not happening. I’m not on that level yet.
“I need to work from the beginning and try to just get my tennis better.”
