The world's top-ranked player continued her nightmare on the grass of Wimbledon, losing in three sets to Yulia Putintseva.
Iga Swiatek has never been much for grass and any hopes that this year's Wimbledon would spark a blossoming love affair with the surface were dashed when the world number one was eliminated 3-6 6-1 6-2 by Yulia Putintseva.
On paper, the fiery 35th-ranked Kazakh should have been easy prey for top seed Swiatek on Saturday, who had not dropped a set in their previous four meetings and came into the encounter on a 21-match winning streak that included a fifth Grand Slam title at the French Open.
However, the slippery grass courts are no match for Swiatek and in a heated atmosphere on Court One, Swiatek disintegrated under the enormous pressure from Putintseva, who dusted herself off after losing the first set to unleash a barrage of attacks that the Pole could not contain.
Swiatek's huge groundstrokes that had inflicted so much punishment in the first set were now being returned with interest, while the Pole's movement seemed suddenly sluggish, her feet a fraction of a second slower to adjust to the ball.
Putintseva broke serve twice in the second set and twice more in the third before sealing a three-set victory to set up a fourth-round clash against Jelena Ostapenko.
For Swiatek, it was another disappointment at Wimbledon, where last year's run to the quarterfinals remains her best effort.
It was not, therefore, as big a surprise as it might seem. None of her 22 individual titles have come on grass, a surface on which she has never even reached a final.
