WIMBLEDON, England — The number-one seed Iga Swiatek defeated Belinda Bencic 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3 on Centre Court on Sunday to go to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time.
🔥Another chance on Tuesday. Let’s go!
🔥Kolejna szansa we wtorek. JAZDA! pic.twitter.com/f1YHi4SOBU
— Iga Świątek (@iga_swiatek) July 9, 2023
Swiatek increased her unbeaten streak to fourteen games, during which she won her fourth Grand Slam championship at the French Open last month.
Elina Svitolina, a past semifinalist who defeated Victoria Azarenka on Court One in straight sets over three sets (2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9), will be Swiatek’s next opponent. Svitolina overcame a 7-4 deficit in the champions tiebreak to win the match with an ace.
Let’s go @iga_swiatek!! 🤩🤩 https://t.co/Y3AY24FqEA
— Mikaela Shiffrin (@MikaelaShiffrin) July 9, 2023
Swiatek has three Roland Garros crowns and one US Open trophy, but she has never advanced past the fourth round at the All England Club. She lost in the third round of Wimbledon last year, ending a 37-match winning streak.
On the green grass utilised at the third Grand Slam competition of the year, Swiatek is just not quite the same player as she is on the red clay of Paris, the hard courts of New York, and at the Australian Open, where she has advanced to the semifinals.
Bencic, who won the singles gold medal at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, is a powerful hitter, so Swiatek undoubtedly had the opportunity to seize the initiative far earlier than she did.
She had break points six times in the first set but didn’t convert them. Two came when she led the first set 5-4 and was one point away from winning it, but Swiatek failed to win either, so Bencic entered the tiebreaker and jumped out to a 6-1 lead before winning it.
After the set, Swiatek went to the restroom and returned to her game almost immediately, breaking and eventually taking the lead 3-1. However, she allowed that advantage to slip away, lost the following three games, and found herself suddenly needing to avert those two match points after falling behind 6-5.
In her on-court interview, Swiatek said, “I don’t know if I even came back from match point down in my career.” I feel like I needed the win to believe in myself on this surface.”
After completing that crucial section, Swiatek resolved the tiebreaker. She scored five straight points from 2-all, the last of which was a double-fault by Bencic, to force a third set.
Bencic yelled as he double-failed for the tenth time to give Swiatek a 3-1 lead in the decisive set after missing a forehand that would have given him a break point. This time, Swiatek maintained that lead, and 23 minutes later—about an hour after being one point away from losing—she was pumping the air following a cross-court forehand winner that put an end to the match.
Svitolina, who had never defeated Azarenka before, had outstanding fortitude in overcoming a slow start and crossing the finish line.
After winning, Svitolina collapsed on her back, and there was no handshake since she has a policy against doing so with Belarusian or Russian athletes because of last year’s invasion of her nation. Azarenka is a native of Belarus.
