{"id":510630,"date":"2026-07-05T08:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/510630\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T08:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:47:16","slug":"wimbledon-alexandra-eala-stuns-iga-swiatek-with-straight-sets-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/510630\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon: Alexandra Eala stuns Iga Swiatek with straight-sets win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m really emotional and maybe for someone like Iga who has won so many Slams, or someone like Serena or Venus [Williams], this achievement might seem small,\u201d Eala<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for someone who grew up in the Philippines … I trained with my mother and my grandfather every day after school with ruffled socks and chubby cheeks … so this is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The left-hander, who had only won one match at a Slam before this week, will face former Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini of Italy next.<\/p>\n

Swiatek failed to bounce back from a disappointing last-16 defeat at the French Open, where the 25-year-old is a four-time winner.<\/p>\n

She made 44 unforced errors as she struggled to regroup after missing two set points in a dramatic tiebreak which decided an 84-minute first set.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like Alexandra was more brave in important moments,\u201d Swiatek said.<\/p>\n

Rybakina out early<\/p>\n

Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina also suffered a surprise exit in a 7-6(4), 6-1 defeat against Belgian Elise Mertens on Court One.<\/p>\n

Rybakina was hoping to follow her Australian Open triumph in January by winning Wimbledon for the second time.<\/p>\n

The world No 2 was unable to emulate her 2022 victory at the All England Club as 25th seed Mertens produced an upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely not happy,\u201d the Kazakh, whose hopes of taking the world number one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka next week were also dashed, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just try to move on. I mean, I lost so many times. I\u2019m sure I\u2019m still going to keep losing. It\u2019s impossible to win everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s runner-up Amanda Anisimova bowed out, losing 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to 2025 Australian Open champion and fellow American Madison Keys.<\/p>\n

Williams sisters withdraw<\/p>\n

Serena Williams and her sister Venus Williams were due to play in the doubles first round overnight, but Serena Williams announced just hours before the match that her knee had not healed enough to play.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old American great suffered the injury during her midweek first-round singles defeat by 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint.<\/p>\n

That was Williams\u2019 first singles match since the 2022 US Open after four years in retirement.<\/p>\n

Tournament organisers delayed the Williams sisters\u2019 first-round tie until Sunday (NZT) to give Serena Williams \u201cas much time\u201d as possible to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles,\u201d the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Zverev eases through<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s French Open champion Alexander Zverev brushed aside American Marcos Giron 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-4.<\/p>\n

The German second seed has never got past the last 16 in nine previous appearances at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

With title favourites Jannik Sinner of Italy and Serb great Novak Djokovic in the opposite side of the draw, he has a golden opportunity when he faces Czech 13th seed Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round.<\/p>\n

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov held off a comeback by former finalist Matteo Berrettini of Italy to win in a deciding set, setting up the first-ever men\u2019s last-16 tie at a Grand Slam between two wildcards. Dimitrov takes on home hope Arthur Fery.<\/p>\n

Fery became only the fifth British man to reach the fourth round in the 21st century with an epic win over Zizou Bergs in the longest match of the tournament so far.<\/p>\n

Fifth-seeded Aussie Alex de Minaur beat American Zachary Svajda in four sets and will next play French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli.<\/p>\n

American Taylor Fritz, a semi-finalist next year, saw off Italian Lorenzo Sonego.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m really emotional and maybe for someone like Iga who has won so many Slams, or someone like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33215,1403,5499,132586,8532,679,71,97687,141956,111,139,69,6507,4291,18217,13744,213,141346,9423,141957,254170,254171,2563,16559,6123,13971,90586,6027,102,62265],"class_list":["post-510630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alexandra","tag-defence","tag-doubles","tag-eala","tag-ended","tag-forced","tag-from","tag-heartbroken","tag-iga","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overnight","tag-philippines","tag-serena","tag-shock","tag-sports","tag-straightsets","tag-stuns","tag-swiatek","tag-swiateks","tag-thirdround","tag-title","tag-tournament","tag-while","tag-williams","tag-wimbledon","tag-win","tag-with","tag-withdraw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}