‘I’m kind of shocked’ – Mats Wilander admits Iga Swiatek’s Wimbledon exit was coming, but surprised by the opponent

The 21-year-old was the big favourite going into the Championships, and despite motoring through a winning run where she won six WTA titles in a row, had some doubters questioning whether she could go all the way at Wimbledon.

“I’m kind of shocked,” said Eurosport tennis expert Mats Wilander after the loss. “I thought that there was a chance she wasn’t going to win Wimbledon, but the type of opponent I thought she would struggle against was not going to be someone like Alize Cornet.”

“Cornet puts a lot of balls back in play but doesn’t hit that hard. I think that it’s down to at least the Cornet’s fighting spirit.

“But also you have to put yourself in Iga’s mindset. She’s getting closer to losing every match she played. And we were just saying before she’s most probably going to thank god and think, ‘let me get out of here. Now I don’t want to play any more tennis for a while’.

“So it is sad, it’s a big moment. And she now is stuck at 37 wins in a row with Martina Hingis.”

During Swiatek’s winning run – which lasted 135 days – she equalled the longest winning streak since 1990, and won titles at Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and Roland Garros during the four month spell.

It’s not the first time Cornet has produced a huge upset at the All England Club, she came from a set down to beat Serena Williams 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in 2014 to stop the American in the third round.

– – –