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Wimbledon, On This Day: Shvedova makes history with first golden set in a Tennis Grand Slam
On June 30, 2012 — 13 years ago — Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan etched her name into the Grand Slam record books by becoming the first player to complete a 'Golden Set'.
Unseeded at the time, Shvedova won 24 consecutive points in the first set — including 14 winners — to storm to a 6-0 lead in her third-round Wimbledon 2012 clash against Italy's Sara Errani.
She went on to win the match 6-0, 6-4 against the 10th-seeded Errani, who had finished runner-up at the French Open just weeks earlier.
Shvedova's run ended in the next round, where she lost to Serena Williams of the United States. Interestingly, Shvedova had once come within a point of achieving a golden set before — double-faulting at 5-0, 40-0 against Amy Frazier at the 2006 Cellular South Cup in Memphis.
Her Wimbledon feat remains the only instance of a golden set recorded in a Grand Slam match.
The first-ever golden set in a top-level professional tennis event was achieved by the USA's Bill Scanlon, who accomplished the feat against Brazil's Marcos Hocevar at the 1983 WCT Gold Cup in Delray Beach.
