World No. 1 Iga Swiatek showed her fighting spirit as she saved two match points and came back from a set down to beat Belinda Bencic in a thrilling fourth-round match at Wimbledon.
The Polish star, who won her fourth Grand Slam title at the French Open last month, had never been past the fourth round at the All England Club before. She faced a tough challenge from the Swiss Olympic champion, who took the first set in a tie-break and served for the match at 6-5 in the second.
But Swiatek refused to give up and produced two stunning winners to erase the match points and force another tie-break, which she dominated 7-2. She then broke Bencic’s serve twice in the final set to seal a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3 victory after three hours of high-quality tennis.
Swiatek, who also won the junior title at Wimbledon in 2018, extended her unbeaten run to 14 matches and became the youngest player to reach the quarter-finals in all four Grand Slam events since Svetlana Kuznetsova.
She will face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who also survived a marathon match against two-time major champion Victoria Azarenka, winning 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) in another Centre Court thriller.
