Swiatek crashes out but Djokovic still in hunt for eighth Wimbledon title

High seed Iga Swiatek crashed out of Wimbledon within the greatest shock of this 12 months’s Championships to this point however Novak Djokovic prevented becoming a member of her by the exit door regardless of one other below-par efficiency on Saturday.

Poland’s Swiatek, who clocked up her fifth Grand Slam title ultimately month’s French Open, was overwhelmed 3-6 6-1 6-2 by Yulia Putintseva within the third spherical as she once more struggled on grass.

“I do know what I would like to vary, and I am going to do this,” the world primary advised reporters after her 21-match successful streak got here to an finish on Courtroom One.

“My tank of actually pushing myself to the boundaries grew to become immediately empty. I used to be sort of shocked.”

Seven-time champion Djokovic moved into the fourth spherical however solely after dropping the opening set to Alexei Popyrin.

The 37-year-old Serb, seeded two, stayed on target for a report twenty fifth Grand Slam title with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6(3) win to arrange a conflict with Danish dynamo Holger Rune.

“It was one other powerful match,” Djokovic, who additionally dropped a set towards British wild card Jacob Fearnley within the second spherical, mentioned on court docket. “It was a really difficult match mentally at this time.”

“Every match it’s getting higher,” added Djokovic, who’s but to win a title this 12 months and wanted knee surgical procedure final month.

Britain was left with just one singles participant out of the 19 who began as Alexander Zverev beat Cameron Norrie and China’s Wang Xinyu dumped out native favorite Harriet Dart.

Emma Raducanu will fly the flag alone for the hosts on Sunday and maybe with that in thoughts she pulled out of her extremely anticipated combined doubles with Andy Murray.

Her resolution, put right down to defending a sore wrist, successfully ended British nice Murray’s illustrious Wimbledon profession in slightly anticlimactic vogue.

Regardless of the impression that Swiatek and her topspin sport continues to be unsuited to Wimbledon’s lawns, she arrived because the favorite to lastly make her mark on the All England Membership.

And when she took the opening set towards Kazakhstan’s fiery Thirty fifth-ranked Putintseva it appeared every thing was underneath management.

However after Putintseva broke serve within the fourth sport of the second set Swiatek’s sport crumbled quickly underneath the withering firepower of her opponent.

“Sooner or later I used to be enjoying fearless. I used to be simply, I’ve to consider 100%, I’ve nothing to lose, simply go for it,” Putintseva, who performs Jelena Ostapenko subsequent, advised reporters.

The soggy British summer time continued to disrupt play on the sixth day of the Championships though there have been sufficient dry interludes to finish the third spherical singles matches.

Males’s fourth seed Zverev served like a machine towards Norrie for a 6-4 6-4 7-6 (15) victory though he suffered a scare when he fell awkwardly and harm his knee in set two.

The 27-year-old has reached the fourth spherical at Wimbledon for the primary time and must beat Taylor Fritz to make it to the quarter-finals after Fritz beat Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo 7-6(3) 6-3 7-5.

Fritz was joined within the fourth spherical by compatriot Ben Shelton who received a five-setter towards Denis Shapovalov to arrange a conflict with high seed Jannik Sinner.

Fifth seed Daniil Medvedev stayed underneath the radar as he beat Jan-Lennard Struff to arrange a conflict with Grigor Dimitrov.

Within the ladies’s draw, Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, runner-up for the final two years, bowed out in spherical three this time as she misplaced 6-1 7-6(4) to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, who beat Jabeur to win the 2022 title, fired out a warning as she thrashed former world quantity Caroline Wozniacki for the lack of one sport.

Danielle Collins additionally progressed to the final 16 with a 6-4 6-4 defeat of Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, that means seven American gamers – 4 ladies and three males – have superior to the final 16 within the singles, probably the most since 2004.