{"id":912599,"date":"2026-07-04T19:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/912599\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T19:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:20:20","slug":"wimbledon-upsets-defending-champion-iga-swiatek-and-no-2-seed-elena-rybakina-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/912599\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon upsets: Defending champion Iga Swiatek and No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina out"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 Iga Swiatek\u2019s title defense at Wimbledon<\/a> ended Saturday in a 7-6 (9), 6-2 third-round loss to 21-year-old Alexandra Eala, who continues to make history for the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Eala is the first Filipino player, male or female, to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam singles tournament on a day of upsets in the women\u2019s draw.<\/p>\n

The left-handed Eala dropped to her knees and rolled onto her back on Centre Court after hitting a forehand winner on her third match point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible to have my countrymen cheering me on and knowing that we\u2019re all in this together,\u201d she said in an on-court interview as she looked around at the Philippines flags.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis goes out to them, this goes out to my family, this goes out to all the little girls with ruffled socks and chubby cheeks. It means the world,\u201d said the 29th-seeded Eala, who saved two set points in the first-set tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

The third-seeded Swiatek earned her first Wimbledon women\u2019s title a year ago when she beat Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0<\/a> in the final.<\/p>\n

Eala, who has trained in Mallorca at the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy, gained worldwide support last year on her breakthrough run to the Miami Open semifinals<\/a>, which included an upset of Swiatek.<\/p>\n

She next faces 13th-seeded Jasmine Paolini for a spot in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

2022 champion Rybakina also out<\/p>\n

Shortly before Swiatek\u2019s exit, 2022 Wimbledon champion<\/a> Elena Rybakina was upset in the third round by Elise Mertens 7-6 (4), 6-1.<\/p>\n

At No. 2, Rybakina is the highest seed on the women\u2019s side to be eliminated. Her loss ensures that Aryna Sabalenka \u2014 who faces Naomi Osaka in the fourth round on Sunday \u2014 will keep her No. 1 ranking after the tournament.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Mertens is the No. 25 seed at Wimbledon, where she\u2019s won two doubles titles. She will next face 21st-seeded Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

Keys shines on 4th of July<\/p>\n

In another upset, Madison Keys rallied to oust the sixth-seeded Anisimova 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in an all-American contest on the 250th anniversary<\/a> of U.S. independence.<\/p>\n

The 26th-seeded Keys, the 2025 Australian Open champion, was asked how she\u2019ll celebrate the U.S. holiday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no plans,\u201d she told the Centre Court crowd after her victory. \u201cWhen you\u2019re not in the States, it\u2019s just kind of another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keys will next play ninth-seeded Linda Noskova.<\/p>\n

Ashlyn Krueger, another American, has come through qualifying to reach the fourth round. She beat Ukraine\u2019s Daria Snigur 6-3, 6-2 and will face another Ukrainian \u2014 12th-seeded Marta Kostyuk \u2014 for a spot in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Zverev wins in straight sets<\/p>\n

French Open champion Alexander Zverev<\/a>, the No. 2 seed, got past American Marcos Giron 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-4 to set up a fourth-round match against 13th-seeded Jiri Lehecka.<\/p>\n

Ninth-seeded Flavio Cobolli \u2014 the runner-up at Roland Garros \u2014 overcame a slow start against Karen Khachanov to win 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-2 and will face No. 5 seed Alex de Minaur in the fourth round.<\/p>\n

Serena and Venus withdraw from doubles<\/p>\n

Serena Williams<\/a> withdrew from her doubles match with sister Venus due to a right knee injury. The 44-year-old Serena was injured during her singles return earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said in an Instagram post that she was \u201cheartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Iga Swiatek\u2019s title defense at Wimbledon ended Saturday in a 7-6 (9), 6-2 third-round loss…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":912600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[48],"tags":[60098,3098,12658,32349,2477,235810,13214,307010,2766,32355,3100,22298,22553,1470,32350,8650,23024,160430,227777,72056,6115,24958,3886,5224,62,1464,67,132,68,2071,14374],"class_list":["post-912599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-alexandra-eala","tag-amanda-anisimova","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-ashlyn-krueger","tag-asia-pacific","tag-daria-snigur","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-elise-mertens","tag-flavio-cobolli","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jasmine-paolini","tag-jiri-lehecka","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-linda-noskova","tag-madison-keys","tag-marcos-giron","tag-marie-bouzkova","tag-marta-kostyuk","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-philippines","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wimbledon","tag-wimbledon-championships"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}