Iga Swiatek reflects on Wimbledon defeat to ‘aggressive’ Elina Svitolina – ‘I wasn’t sure what I should focus on’

Top seed Swiatek was favourite to take a maiden Wimbledon title after winning the French Open in June, but her hopes of a fifth grand slam title were dashed by the inspired Ukranian.

Despite leading by a break in the opening set, Swiatek lost 16 of the last 18 points to fall behind. She then grew increasingly frustrated in a third set decider and her serve was broken twice.

And Swiatek has said she struggled to correct her mistakes during the match despite getting feedback from her coach as the centre court roof was closed.

“I felt like I’m pretty much making the same mistakes,” she said. “Even though I tried to do better on some shots. I wanted some tips, what they think I should actually focus on.

“Sometimes when something is not working, it’s hard to find a reason because there are maybe a few reasons. When somebody is looking from the outside, it may be a bit easier to analyse.”

Swiatek made 41 unforced errors against Svitolina, 16 more than her opponent and almost double the number she made during her fourth round win over Belinda Bencic.

Her forehand appeared particularly vulnerable to mistakes against Svitolina, but while Swiatek was full of scrutiny for her own performance, she was quick to praise her conqueror.

“My forehand wasn’t the best,” she added. “I’m still working on it…It’s hard for me to point one thing what failed exactly.

“I think (Svitolina) was just overall playing aggressively and giving it all in every shot. So for sure I made some mistakes that I shouldn’t do. That’s why I lost. But she also put pressure on me, I think.”

Svitolina has never before won a grand slam, and now faces Czechia’s Marketa Vondrousova in the semi-final on Thursday.

It’s a remarkable achievement already given Svitolina only returned to the tour in April after giving birth to her first child.

And Swiatek said that she would be rooting for Swiatek to win.

“I think overall, looking at her career, having a Grand Slam title would be pretty amazing for her,” she said.

“I’ll root for her, especially because we like eachother as people. I told her on the net that I hope she wins this tournament…It’s tough to win a Grand Slam. I know that for sure she wants it really bad.”

– – –