Wimbledon’s 2026 tournament delivered one of its most dramatic days of upsets in recent memory on Saturday, as two recent Grand Slam champions crashed out of the women’s singles draw within hours of each other, capping off a historic afternoon for two unheralded contenders. Defending singles champion Iga Swiatek, the world’s third-ranked player and a six-time Grand Slam title holder, fell in straight sets 7-6 (11-9), 6-2 to rising Filipino star Alexandra Eala on the sport’s most iconic court, Centre Court. The upset came just 60 minutes after 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina suffered an equally surprising defeat at the hands of Belgium’s Elise Mertens, who wrapped up a 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 third-round win.
Rybakina’s premature exit carries significant ranking ramifications: it guarantees that Aryna Sabalenka will retain her position as the women’s world No. 1, no matter how far Sabalenka advances in the remainder of the 2026 tournament. Analysts have noted that Rybakina’s upset is arguably more staggering than Swiatek’s, given the Pole has struggled for consistent form since lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish last summer. Swiatek’s title defense got off to a notoriously rocky start this year, when she broke down in tears after scraping through a tight three-set opening round clash against Taylor Townsend. Adding context to Saturday’s result, Eala already notched a breakthrough win over Swiatek at the 2025 Miami Open, a result that left the defending champion vulnerable to an upset from the rising young contender.
The final game of the clash stretched across multiple lead changes, with Eala saving four break points before converting her third match point. After sealing the win, the rising star collapsed to the Centre Court grass and buried her face in her hands, overwhelmed by the historic result. Swiatek’s defeat extends a long drought for defending women’s singles champions at Wimbledon: no player has successfully retained the Wimbledon singles title since Serena Williams achieved the feat back in 2016. Saturday’s upset also marks the third time in five years that Swiatek has been eliminated in the tournament’s third round. The Pole has failed to claim a tour-level title in 2026, and has not won any Grand Slam title since her 2025 Wimbledon victory, extending a challenging run of results for the former world No. 1. She finished the match against Eala with 44 unforced errors, five double faults, and only one ace, capping the performance with a misfired long forehand that summed up her off-day.
For Eala, the result makes history: she is the first player from the Philippines to reach the fourth round of any Grand Slam in the Open Era. Eala has been steadily climbing the rankings in the months since her Miami breakthrough, and she carried that momentum into Wimbledon by claiming the WTA 125 title on the grass courts of Birmingham in the lead-up to the Grand Slam. Against Swiatek, Eala made a nervous start, with the two players exchanging breaks early on to keep the first set tight. Swiatek battled back from 5-3 down to force a tie-break, but Eala held her nerve through a series of blistering baseline rallies, clinching the first set when Swiatek fired a forehand long. A frustrated Swiatek yelled at her coaching team before heading off court between sets to reset, but she came out flat, dropping the first four games of the second set. Though she had brief flashes of her top form, Eala stayed aggressive on the big points, and closed out the win to set up a fourth-round clash against 2024 Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini.
In the earlier upset, Mertens, a 30-year-old two-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion, pulled off one of the biggest wins of her singles career against Rybakina, the Australian Open champion who claimed the Wimbledon title in 2022. Rybakina entered the tournament just 947 ranking points behind Sabalenka, meaning she needed to reach at least the quarter-finals to have any chance of claiming the world No. 1 ranking. She was taken to a deciding set in her opening match against France’s Lois Boisson, but cruised through the second round with a comfortable win over American Caty McNally, dropping just three games. But Mertens proved too strong on Saturday: after edging a tight first-set tie-break, the Belgian dominated the second set, winning nine consecutive points to take command of the match. Though she dropped two match points late on while serving for the win, Mertens sealed victory with a match-winning ace, booking a fourth-round meeting with 21st seed Marie Bouzkova, who came from a set down to defeat Liudmila Samsonova earlier on Saturday.
“I have no words, actually. I’m very happy I won that first set and kept the momentum going,” Mertens said after the match. “This is definitely one of the biggest wins of my career, especially here at Wimbledon. I’ve had some success here before. I’m just very pleased with my performance today.”
The day of upsets did not end there: 2025 Wimbledon runner-up Amanda Anisimova also exited the tournament, falling 3-6 6-2 6-3 to former Australian Open champion Madison Keys of the United States.