Iga Swiatek, the No. 1 female tennis player in the world, had a winning streak that lasted 132 days, but it felt like millions of years. She’d competed in Qatar, California, Florida, Germany, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, coming out of each match victorious. Her 37-match winning streak was so high it seemed unbreakable.
But at Saturday’s Wimbledon match, her streak was tragically ended by none other than Alizé Cornet of France. “I mean, what she’s done this year is out of this world,” Cornet said, “and I can’t believe I’m the one that actually broke the streak.”
After so many female players (37 in total) were defeated by Iga and even were defeated by her a second time, Cornet, who won a match against Serena Williams in Wimbledon 2014, was the one who finally won against Iga. This completely shocked the crowd, considering the fact that Cornet has never even beaten a top-20 player in 13 attempts. But somehow, she was able to get back up and try again. And this time, she was able to get the upper hand and win.
For anyone who was actually watching the match live or who knows the rules of tennis and how it’s played, how Iga lost might be a shock to you. On Iga’s second set, she hit too hard and Cornet dodged the ball, which flew out of bounds. This caused Swiatek to start laughing at herself, but later she explained why she hit it out. “Well, basically the thing that I changed this year is I started being more and more aggressive,” Iga explains. “It was really comfortable for me to have the initiative and be proactive. But here I couldn’t control the ball.
So, I needed to slow down a little bit. I was kind of pushing the ball, which sometimes was actually okay… But there in the second set, yeah, I kind of made a few attempts to speed up again and didn’t work out. I didn’t come back to being solid. Also, you know, when you play aggressively and you suddenly change the way you play, it’s not easy to keep that. Yeah, so I got a little bit confused.”
Another female tennis player of Wimbledon was Amanda Anisimova. Just as Anisimova was getting ready for the US Open, she was given the shocking news that her beloved father tragically passed at 52. Even after receiving the terrible news that her father died, Anisimova was not discouraged to play the US Open.
During 2021, Anisimova had lost too much. She was dominant during the match and remained concentrated. She also described how she tried to “soak in every moment that I had”. And at the end, she said, “Especially after last year, I wouldn’t have pictured myself in this position.”
Even though it was a tough year for Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek, they were still able to manage and continue on.
Cites used: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656877653411x228206337057307740/Iga%20Swiatek%2C%20Coco%20Gauff%20out%20at%20Wimbledon%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jun/28/serena-williams-wimbledon-exit-alize-cornet
But at Saturday’s Wimbledon match, her streak was tragically ended by none other than Alizé Cornet of France. “I mean, what she’s done this year is out of this world,” Cornet said, “and I can’t believe I’m the one that actually broke the streak.”
After so many female players (37 in total) were defeated by Iga and even were defeated by her a second time, Cornet, who won a match against Serena Williams in Wimbledon 2014, was the one who finally won against Iga. This completely shocked the crowd, considering the fact that Cornet has never even beaten a top-20 player in 13 attempts. But somehow, she was able to get back up and try again. And this time, she was able to get the upper hand and win.
For anyone who was actually watching the match live or who knows the rules of tennis and how it’s played, how Iga lost might be a shock to you. On Iga’s second set, she hit too hard and Cornet dodged the ball, which flew out of bounds. This caused Swiatek to start laughing at herself, but later she explained why she hit it out. “Well, basically the thing that I changed this year is I started being more and more aggressive,” Iga explains. “It was really comfortable for me to have the initiative and be proactive. But here I couldn’t control the ball.
So, I needed to slow down a little bit. I was kind of pushing the ball, which sometimes was actually okay… But there in the second set, yeah, I kind of made a few attempts to speed up again and didn’t work out. I didn’t come back to being solid. Also, you know, when you play aggressively and you suddenly change the way you play, it’s not easy to keep that. Yeah, so I got a little bit confused.”
Another female tennis player of Wimbledon was Amanda Anisimova. Just as Anisimova was getting ready for the US Open, she was given the shocking news that her beloved father tragically passed at 52. Even after receiving the terrible news that her father died, Anisimova was not discouraged to play the US Open.
During 2021, Anisimova had lost too much. She was dominant during the match and remained concentrated. She also described how she tried to “soak in every moment that I had”. And at the end, she said, “Especially after last year, I wouldn’t have pictured myself in this position.”
Even though it was a tough year for Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek, they were still able to manage and continue on.
Cites used: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656877653411x228206337057307740/Iga%20Swiatek%2C%20Coco%20Gauff%20out%20at%20Wimbledon%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jun/28/serena-williams-wimbledon-exit-alize-cornet