A defining feature of the Polish world No 1’s dominance has been her ability to take time away from her opponents with her early ball-striking and quicksilver movement. And as she stormed through the opening set against Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, it seemed very much business as usual. Then, Putintseva found fresh impetus – and Swiatek began to lose control of time.

What followed will go down as the upset of the fortnight. Yet Putintseva’s 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory was not entirely unforeseeable. Two months ago, she came within a point of establishing a 5-1 lead against Swiatek in Rome. That was on slow red clay; on the slick grass of Wimbledon’s No 1 Court, where time is at a premium, the fiery and tenacious 29-year-old was always likely to pose a greater threat, particularly after winning her first title on the surface last month in Birmingham.  

It was the manner in which Putintseva went about her work that caught the eye. A bundle of scarcely contained energy at the best of times, the world No 35 went into overdrive after going a set down. Her stride became more purposeful. Her tempo quickened, both in the rallies and between them. She regularly delivered her first serve with 17 of the allotted 25 seconds remaining. She also shifted her receiving position, moving back to give herself more time to read and neutralise Swiatek’s much-improved service. It was a change that reaped dividends, Putintseva discomfiting the Pole by drilling deep, powerful returns down the centre of the court à la Novak Djokovic.

The cumulative effect of these adjustments was dramatic. After dictating the rhythm of the contest in the first set, Swiatek found herself constantly rushed. An abiding memory came as the end neared, when she prodded an ungainly backhand skywards after being caught at her feet by a searing return. It was a shot that smacked of helplessness, an unaccustomed feeling for a woman who had lost just four matches all season. Swiatek was quite literally ushered towards the exit. 

“Putintseva is just so good at playing quickly, playing the momentum,” said Ashleigh Barty, the former Wimbledon champion turned BBC pundit, early in the final set. “She hasn’t given Iga much time to think about it. She’s playing quickly, playing to her tempo. It’s all happening so quickly. There needs to be a way [Swiatek] can wrestle back the momentum, otherwise she’ll run out of time.”

Which is precisely what happened. After reaching the quarter-finals at the All England Club for the first time last year, Swiatek appeared poised for an even deeper run this time around. She began the tournament with a pair of emphatic wins over Sofia Kenin and Petra Martic, and carried a 21-match winning streak into the third-round. But from the outset, Putintseva, herself unbeaten in seven outings, was a woman in a hurry. Before her opening service game, she glowered impatienly as Swiatek ran across the baseline to place her towels in the courtside boxes. Her mood darkened further in the second set, where she appeared distinctly unimpressed whenever the Pole went to her towel or took a moment to compose herself before settling into her return position. Putintseva denied she was intentionally trying to hassle her opponent.

“I was not rushing on purpose,” she said. “Honestly, I think every time I’m playing my service game, I’m not taking much time. I never go for a towel or anything. I’m just going.”

When Swiatek feels rushed by the server, she tends to raise her racket, signalling that she is not ready – a standard gesture among players, but one the Pole performs more often than most. It is a way of wrestling back time, of gaining precious extra seconds. The 23-year-old has deployed the tactic in the past against Marketa Vondrousova, another player who likes to play her service games at a quick pace. Putintseva was having none of it, however. Forced to restart her service motion on a game point early in the second set, the Kazakh held with a lovely wrong-footing forehand and then cast a death stare down the court. A couple of games later, as she battled off three break points, Putintseva exploded with fury after being delayed on serve, gesticulating wildly first at her coach, Roman Kislianskii, and then at Kader Nouni, the chair umpire. Her anger only intensified her bustle and brio.

Technically, the receiver is required to play at the server’s pace. It is something of a grey area, however: in the right hands, the rule can be weaponised, effectively allowing a player to quick-serve an opponent by putting the ball in play before they are ready. With the two women operating at opposite ends of the time spectrum, Nouni’s reluctance to intervene seemed sensible. 

The Frenchman was equally right not to penalise Swiatek when she took an authorised break between the second and third sets. While Putintseva postured theatrically as she awaited the Pole’s return, Swiatek was within the allotted timeframe: five minutes from the moment a player enters the toilet or changing area, not including the time required to get there and back. Swiatek returned to the court roughly seven minutes after departing, so the boos that greeted her reflected an ignorance of the rules. Yet the delay fired up Putintseva still further – another of the countless ways in which time shaped the outcome. 

“I was a bit, like, not annoyed, but she took a lot of time off the court,” said the Kazakh. “I don’t know what happened, how many minutes she was taking. Honestly, at some point I was so bored.”

Ensnared in an ever-widening web of force and finesse, Swiatek has rarely looked more harassed than she did down the stretch. Remarkably, Putintseva won 18 of the first 21 points in the decider. It was quite the turnaround: Swiatek is normally the one harrying opponents into submission. But grass, where the ball skids through fast and low, complicates matters. With less time to set up her shots, particularly the buggy-whip forehand so central to her success on other surfaces, Swiatek’s ability to take the ball on the rise and force the play with the strength and accuracy of her ball-striking is compromised. At the same time, the unpredictable footing makes it tougher to move, diminishing the advantage afforded by her peerless athleticism and defensive prowess. Putintseva used a combination of power and panache to exploit those vulnerabilities  

Nor should the cumulative toll of an exhausting clay-court campaign be overlooked. Swiatek’s French Open victory last month, her fourth in five years, marked the culmination of a run that included a first title in Madrid and a third Italian Open crown, a sequence of 19 matches in 45 days. As Swiatek acknowledged, the quick transition from Parisian clay to English grass, a turnaround of just 23 days, left her short on rest and preparation; again, a lack of time played its part.

“My tank of really pushing myself to the limits became suddenly empty,” Swiatek reflected. “I was kind of surprised. But I know what I did wrong after Roland Garros. I didn’t really rest properly. I’m not going to make this mistake again. After such a tough clay court season, I really must have my recovery. 

“I thought that I’m going to be able to play at the same level, but I feel like on grass I need a little bit more of that energy to be patient and accept some mistakes. Mentally, I didn’t really do that well in this tournament. I need to recover better after the clay court season, both physically and mentally.”

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That, at least, was the impression as the world No 4 from Kazakhstan staged an extraordinary comeback from two match points down to defeat her countrywoman Yulia Putintseva in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open.

Serving at 2-5, 15-40 in the deciding set, Rybakina looked destined for a first defeat on clay in 16 matches, an impression that deepened when Putintseva, who had tormented Rybakina with her finesse, sent the former Wimbledon champion sprinting forward in pursuit of a heavily undercut drop shot. Somehow, though, Rybakina intercepted the ball at shoelace level to flick an outrageous, improvised winner across the face of the net. With one match point erased, she promptly saved the next with an ace. 

Barely a quarter of an hour later, Rybakina completed a 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victory, her first in three meetings with Putintseva, who obliterated her racket in frustration. Rybakina now has a tour-leading 30 wins this season, including eight in a row following last month’s title run in Stuttgart. 

Yet her latest success owed nothing to burgeoning self-belief or a sense of invincibility. It was, she revealed afterwards, the product of an indifference born of physical and mental exhaustion. If Rybakina appeared nerveless on the brink of defeat, it had much to do with the extended format of WTA 1000 events, which now span a fortnight and are all mandatory. Quite simply, the 24-year-old would have welcomed a break before defending her title at next week’s Italian Open. 

“I feel very tired,” said Rybakina following her eighth match in 15 days. “[I’m] happy that in the end I pulled through the match and managed to win, but at 5-2 it wasn’t easy. I already was without any emotions, I was just trying to do what I’m supposed to do – and it turned out with a win.”

“I think these tournaments which became so long, it’s not very helpful, I would say, because if you’re fit, you’re fit, you’re going to play every day and the tournament finishes. But you stay in one place for almost two weeks, and it’s not like here you finish and you go rest. You go and you play another mandatory event. That’s definitely not making it easy. 

“I was not there with the legs, definitely, in the match. She’s a tough opponent, she’s a fighter, and she was playing well. In the third set it was very quick when I started to lose these three games in a row, 5-2 down, and after I think I didn’t have any more emotions, no frustration, no nothing. I was just going for every point. I was trying to do what I’m supposed to do, and then whatever happens, happens.

“I’m not here to complain. I’m playing and making good money, but I would say that it’s not the best thing when you are kind of without emotions and you’re just like on remote control going to play.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s a good thing… when you are already at the point where you are so tired that at 5-2, you’re just, ‘OK, if I’m going to lose, I’m going to have some vacation, because the next tournament is coming.’”

Of course, the best solution to fatigue is winning in straight sets – something that defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, whom Rybakina will face in the semi-finals, later achieved for the first time at this year’s event. Taken the distance by Magda Linette, Robin Montgomery and Danielle Collins en route to the quarter-finals, Sabalenka produced her best performance so far at the Caja Mágica to see off the Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva 6-1, 6-4 and maintain her pursuit of a third title. 

Andreeva, who turned 17 earlier this week, has climbed more than 150 places in the rankings since the pair met for the first time in the Spanish capital last year. Twelve months on, she has underlined her progress with impressive victories over Linda Noskova, Marketa Vondrousova and Jasmine Paolini. Sabalenka posed a challenge of a different order, however, feasting on Andreeva’s predictable service patterns and punishing every short ball.

“I dropped my level a little bit in the past couple of tournaments,” said Sabalenka, “so it was really important for me to get this tough win to feel the confidence again. 

“It gives me more belief and I started feeling better on court.”

The Belarusian world No 2 acknowledged Rybakina’s concerns about the length of the tournament, but pointed to the benefit of having a day’s rest between matches.   

“Personally, I prefer to have a day off,” said Sabalenka. “Two weeks’ tournament, it’s kind of long, but at the same time I prefer to play the match than have a day off. So for me, physically it’s better. That’s my opinion.”

It is nonetheless a curiosity of the longer tournaments that not every round is followed by a rest day. Rafael Nadal’s loss to Jiri Lehecka on Tuesday night was an obvious case in point. Many questioned why the five-time champion was obliged to play what will probably be his final match on Spanish soil barely 24 hours after overcoming Pedro Cachin in an epic three-hour duel the previous afternoon. It will be intriguing to see how Sabalenka and Rybakina fare in similar circumstances on Thursday night.  

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