WORLD No1 Iga Swiatek was dumped out of Wimbledon after being booed by the crowd for taking a long loo break.
Poland’s Swiatek, who is a five-time major champion, was one of the favourites at SW19.
4
4
4
But she looked worse for wear after losing the second set to Yulia Putintseva on Saturday, and felt the wrath of the No1 Court spectators when she returned from a lengthy toilet break.
After being heckled by some fans, she was then muscled out of the tournament 3-6 6-1 6-2 by Kazakstan’s Putintseva.
It ended Swiatek’s 21-match unbeaten streak, which stretches back to April and included the French Open success on clay in Paris.
World No35 Putintseva had never previously been beyond the second round at Wimbledon.
She claimed she used the crowd to her advantage, as well as the memory of beating another world No1 – Naomi Osaka – on grass five years ago.
Putintseva said: “I was just so focused on playing fast and not give her any time… I was thinking during the play, I beat the world No1 before on grass.
“You guys [the crowd] bring me back to life after the first set, really. This is crazy. It was a great energy from all of you today.
“That’s why I was like a fire, trying to entertain you more and more with my shots. I was taking energy from you guys.”
BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERS
4
Putintseva will play 13th seed and former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko for a place in the quarterfinals.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina beat two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur in straight sets.
Follow all the latest news from Wimbledon
🍓 WE’VE got Wimbledon covered – with our top team at the home of tennis.
Jabeur lost in the final at the All England Club in 2022 and 2023, and was unable to shake off ghosts of Centre Court on Saturday, eventually losing 6-1 7-6.
Svitolina was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, and will be the favourite against China’s Xinyu Wang in the fourth round.
Wimbledon 2024 prize money
PRIZE MONEY for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is a new record – and puts the grass-court Slam at the top of the tree.
The All England Club will dish out £50million across all the events – an increase of £5.3m and 11.9 per cent on last year, where singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova picked up £2.35m each.
However, the king and queen of grass this July will collect an extra £350,000 – taking the winner’s earnings to £2.7m.
Here is the breakdown for the 2024 Wimbledon singles prize money:
- Winner: £2.7m
- Runner-up: £1.4m
- Semi-finalists: £715,000
- Quarter-finalists: £375,000
- Fourth round: £226,000
- Third round: £143,000
- Second round: £93,000
- First round: £60,000
- Overall total: £50m