On June 30, 2012, thirteen years ago, Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan wrote herself into the Grand Slam record books after becoming the first player to complete a ‘Golden Set’.
The unseeded Shvedova won 24 consecutive points in the first set, including 14 winners, to race to a 6-0 advantage during her Wimbledon 2012 third round encounter against Sara Errani of Italy.
The Kazakh player went on to win the contest 6-0, 6-4 against the 10th-seeded Errani, who had finished runner-up at the French Open just prior to the slam.
Shvedova’s run came to an end in the next round, losing out to Serena Williams of the USA. Shvedova had once earlier come within a point of a golden set, double-faulting at 5-0, 40-0 against Amy Frazier in the 2006 Cellular South Cup in Memphis.
Shvedova’s achievement remains the only such instance of a golden set in a Grand Slam event. USA’s Bill Scanlon was the first to achieve the feat in a top-level professional tennis event against Brazil’s Marcos Hocevar in the 1983 WCT Gold Cup at Delray Beach.
