"No respect to her opponent, always petty mind games" - Fans angered by Iga Swiatek delaying Yulia Putintseva during Wimbledon loss

Iga Swiatek lost to Yulia Putintseva in the third round at Wimbledon on July 6. The Pole was under pressure after she lost five consecutive games on her way to losing the second set. She took a bathroom break before the decider and fans were unhappy with how long it took her to settle down.

The World No. 1 was on a 21-match win streak before making her way to the All England Club as a top seed. However, she skipped the grass-court preparatory tournaments and participated in Wimbledon directly after her French Open triumph.

She won the first two matches in straight sets but fell to defeat in the third round. Putintseva was clinical in her 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Swiantek.

From 1-1 in the second set, Putintseva won five games in a row to win the set. Before the decider, Swiatek took a bathroom break amidst which the Kazakh was ready and waiting for her on the court, even sharing a smile with the chair umpire. The Pole was welcomed back on the court with boos from the Centre Court crowd.

A clip of the waiting period was posted on X (formerly Twitter) by a fan with the caption:

"Iga is such a sore loser and have no respect to her opponent. she always resorts to stalling, petty mind games & gamesmanship when she's losing."

Some other fans also expressed their unhappiness with the 5-time Grand Slam winner:

"And always comes up with a million different excuses for why she lost as opposed to giving her opponent credit. This is why I can’t root for her. She’s a low class, insecure world #1," one fan wrote.

"It's very control-freak. Everyone has to wait for her, we begin again when she's ready," another fan wrote.

"At least she didn't lecture the crowd about respect this time. Sheesh," a third fan wrote.

Here are some more fan reactions to Iga Swiatek's break between sets:

"Taking her time choosing her Racquet after taking so long at the Bathroom Break adds Insult to Injury here. The crowd let her know what they thought of it," one fan wrote.

"Its within the rules. It stinks but players do it a lot," another fan wrote.

"She is so annoying," wrote yet another.

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Yulia Putintseva was bored during Iga Swiatek's bathroom break in their Wimbledon 3R encounter

Iga Swiatek at The Championships - Wimbledon 2024

Yulia Putintseva talked about Iga Swiatek's break before the third set began during their third-round encounter at Wimbledon. The Kazakh explained that she was not annoyed but got bored.

"Not annoyed, but she took a lot of time off the court. I don't know what the rules are. She just went, like, to the toilet break. I don't know what happened or how many minutes she was taking," Putintseva said after the match.

"Honestly at some point I was so bored. I went like I thought she was coming. Then I was like moving, moving, she's not there. Again moving, she's not there. I was kind of getting bored," she added.

The break did not fluster the Kazakh who had previously defeated a World No. 1 on grass, that win coming against Naomi Osaka at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships. She went on to take a 4-0 lead in the third set against Swiatek before wrapping up the match.

Yulia Putintseva will take on Jelena Ostapenko in the fourth round while Iga Swiatek will move on to preparating for the Olympics.