By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) – Iga Swiatek said young Filipina Alexandra Eala showed courage in the big moments to abruptly end her Wimbledon reign in the third round on Saturday, with the Pole vowing to “trust the process” in her bid to overcome a patchy run of form.
The defending champion battled hard in an 84-minute opening set that slipped away in a tiebreak, before her challenge faded as Eala grew in confidence and pulled off the biggest upset at this year’s tournament.
Swiatek’s French Open campaign unravelled amid tension in a fourth-round loss to Marta Kostyuk on her 25th birthday in May, but she said the shock against Eala on grass at Wimbledon was purely due to the shortcomings in her game.
“I don’t think it’s the same as in Paris. In Paris it was completely about me not handling the pressure well. I was firing shots,” Swiatek told reporters.
“Today… I was mis-hitting half of these returns. I lost many points. Maybe if I watch, I’m going to see something else.
“I’m also happy how I came back in the tiebreaker, and also after being a break down in the first set because in Paris I’d just lose it straight.
“I was there to fight. It wasn’t enough … in the tiebreak, when it was tight, I slowed down a bit, but she was brave enough to play a bit faster. You need to be brave in Wimbledon to win these points.”
A YEAR OF INCONSISTENCY FOR SWIATEK
The six-times major champion’s year has been plagued by inconsistency with quarter-final exits at the Australian Open, Qatar and Indian Wells, before a second-round defeat in Miami and an up-and-down season on clay.
That concluded in a major setback at Roland Garros and her grass court preparations were also underwhelming, as she crashed early in Bad Homburg to arrive in southwest London with a cloud over her.
Swiatek, however, said she was not affected by some of those disappointing results anymore.
“Well, you need to trust the process. 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 trying to let it go,” she added.
“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.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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