On Saturday, July 6, third-round matches were played at Wimbledon in the men’s and women’s draws. The matches started two hours late due to rain. In the men’s draw, last year’s quarter-finalist Roman Safiullin, ranked 44th in the ATP rankings, took to the court. The Russian was up against 20-year-old Frenchman Arthur Fiss, the 34th player in the world.
On the way to the face-to-face meeting, Fiss spent a little less energy. In the first round he beat Dominik Stricker in four sets, and in the 1/32 finals, Arthur’s rival Hubert Hurkacz was unable to finish the match due to injury. In the first round, Safiullin scored a super-strong victory over 26th seed Francisco Serundolo, and then defeated Tomas Machac in four games.
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Fiss previously beat Safiullin twice: at the Challenger in Lille in 2022 and in Marseille in 2023. This time Arthur won again. The first set was divided into two parts due to rain; the forced break was about an hour. The French tennis player was the first to face break points (this happened in the sixth game), but the Russian fought back, after which Wimbledon was covered in precipitation.
Rain at Wimbledon
Photo: Francois Nel/Getty Images
In the second half of the match, Safiullin played better. In the ninth game, Roman took someone else’s serve from the third break point, after which he served to love for the set: 6:4 in 46 minutes of net time.
In the second set, Fiss, who became more active, quickly took a 2:0 lead. Safiullin fought hard twice on the reception – in the third game and in the seventh – but missed all three break points. In the eighth game, the Russian did not allow his opponent to take advantage of the set point on the reception, but then Arthur served for the game – 6:3 in 40 minutes.
Roman Safiullin in a match with Arthur Fiss at Wimbledon 2024
Photo: Francois Nel/Getty Images
Safiullin took the third set with a clear advantage. Roman made only three unforced errors, while his opponent made three. There were no break points, and the Russian won this match convincingly – 6:1 in 33 minutes. He lost his only match 5:0.
In the fourth game, the players initially took the lead even without break points. In the eighth game, Safiullin’s errors allowed Fis to break for 5:3. The Frenchman served to win the match and even had a set point, but failed to achieve it. Unfortunately, in the tenth game the Russian lost his serve again. Arthur, who did not change his attacking style, took advantage of the second set point on reception and brought the match to the deciding set – 6:4 in 46 minutes.
In it, Safiullin lost 0:3, losing his serve in the second game. After that, it started to rain again and hope arose: maybe the break would allow Roman to restart? Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. In the remaining games, the opponents calmly took their serve and Fis won a convincing victory 4:6, 6:3, 1:6, 6:4, 6:3. The clean time of the match was 3 hours 22 minutes, and the “dirty” time, that is, taking into account the breaks, was five hours.
Thus, Safiullin did not defend all the points of the quarter-finals of last year’s Wimbledon. Because of this, he will lose more than 20 places in the ATP rankings and fall out of the top 60. And Fiss will play against Alex de Minaur, the ninth seed, in the round of 16. The Australian did not play in the third round, as Luca Pouille retired before the match due to an abdominal muscle injury.
And in the women’s category there was a great sensation: five-time Grand Slam champion and world number one Iga Swiatek lost to a Muscovite playing for Kazakhstan – no, not Elena Rybakina, but the world number 35 Yulia Putintseva!
Putintseva is playing very well on grass this season. She won the title in Birmingham in June and has already reached the fourth round at Wimbledon. That means her winning streak now extends to eight matches.
Yulia Putintseva in a match with Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon 2024
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
In the first set, nothing foreshadowed such a development. Swiatek served confidently and was already on break points in the second game, but missed all four opportunities to take her opponent’s serve. In the sixth game, the Polish player took the game to love, and in the ninth she escaped three break points and served to win the game, registering 19 winners to Putintseva’s seven – 6:3 in 42 minutes.
Well, then everything turned upside down. In the second set, Julia made a break in the fourth game for 3:1. In the fifth game, the representative of Kazakhstan overcame three break points and then made the second break in a row, after which she served for the match – 6:1 in 36 minutes. In this set, Putintseva made only one unforced error, and Swiatek made as many as 11.
In the decisive match everything became clear pretty quickly. In the first four games Putintseva gave up only three points. In the eighth game Yulia finished the match with the third match point: 3:6, 6:1, 6:2 in 2 hours. Iga played first (34 winners against 19), but made an incredible number of errors (37 unforced errors against 15).
Despite the defeat, Swiatek, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon 2023, will remain world number one. Her gap to her rivals is too great. Putintseva will face the 2017 Roland Garros champion Elena Ostapenko in the round of 16. Yulia has already beaten her best result at Wimbledon (second round). She has thus reached the quarter-finals of Majors three times (RG in 2016 and 2018 and US Open in 2020).
Wimbledon 2024 will end on July 14. Follow all the events from the London tournament on the “Championship”.
