This season’s Wimbledon is getting spicier each day! Only a few days after Taylor Fritz and Arthur Rinderknech’s sassy jibes at each other, the trend has now slipped into the WTA field too! Following a tense on-court battle between Iga Swiatek and Yulia Putintseva, fans are buzzing about a reported verbal altercation between the two players off-court.

Top seed Swiatek’s Wimbledon run came to a crashing halt in the third round. The world number one fell to a resurgent Putintseva (3-6, 6-1, 6-2). Losing against World No. 35 not only broke Swiatek’s 21-match winning streak but also her dreams on the grass courts. “I know what I need to change and I’ll do that,” she said. However, as Swiatek is busy finding the reason behind her defeat, her opponent, Putintseva, has gained a new boost of confidence.

The Kazakhstani player now sees herself as a “gangster on the court and angel off it.” Surprisingly, Swiatek, who is usually known for her introverted nature, couldn’t stay silent at this self-proclamation! Replying to her, the 23-year-old player said, “Maybe they teach that in Kazakhstan.” Thus, began an unwanted give-and-take exchange between the duo. It continued during Swiatek’s press conference after her match, too! 

Swiatek, who admitted that her “tank of pushing” herself to the limits is “suddenly empty,” now, further stated, “I totally let her come back to the game in the second set. I shouldn’t have done that. I made some mistakes, as well. But for sure, she used her chance.” A similar scenario unfolded in the ATP world as Arthur Rinderknech accused Fritz of “whining” at the French Open earlier. And by defeating Rinderknech in the second round at Wimbledon, Fritz regained his power over him. Fritz took his revenge, establishing his statement, “Don’t expect me to be nice.”

The pole, who is coming to the grass after winning three back-to-back clay titles, is probably finding it hard to accept a brutal defeat to the 29-year-old player. However, the five-time Grand Slam champion has taken an oath to never repeat her mistakes again! On the other hand, Yulia Putintseva is enjoying her hard-fought win. And when asked about her opponent, her comments also put forward her fiery attitude against the Pole.

Talking about her relationship with her, Putintseva said, “No, I don’t know her. She never, at least what I see, she always like in her zone with her team. She don’t talk much to anyone. I mean, I am not entering that bubble.” Although she might not be interested in entering Swiatek’s “bubble,” Iga’s fans were curious to know how the Polish star was taking the defeat and recovering from it.

Iga delves on her not-so-good time at Wimbledon after an upset

Swiatek’s decision to jump directly from the clay court season to the grass-court one did not prove to be fruitful. According to her, the switch also kept her from “physically and mentally” recovering from the French Open. With a tinge of regret in her statements, Iga Swiatek stated, “For me going from this kind of tennis where I felt like I’m playing the best tennis in my life to another surface where I kind of struggle a little bit more, it’s not easy.”

Further adding, she said, “All that stuff really combines to me not really having a good time in Wimbledon. Again, I feel like if I’m going to do a better job at recovering and if I will have more energy coming into the tournament, I can work through that and just focus on the right stuff.”

Clearly, Iga Swiatek did not have the best time in London this season. Nevertheless, just like Fritz, Swiatek is not the one to stay quiet when an opponent tries to pull her down!