A relentless Iga Swiatek stayed on course for a maiden Australian Open title as she powered into the second week with a statement victory over Emma Raducanu on Saturday. In battle of former US Open champions, Swiatek easily had the measure of Raducanu as she romped to a 6-1, 6-0 triumph, rattling off 11 consecutive games from 1-1 in a brutal display. Five-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek hit 24 winners to Raducanu’s nine on Rod Laver Arena. “I played a few shots that I thought after them, this is what I practise for to play these kind of shots, and that’s why I really enjoyed today’s match,” said Swiatek, who was at times untouchable, committing just 12 unforced errors.
“I felt really confident, so at the end I could push for even more.
“Having converted all these break points as well was important, so I’m really happy with today’s performance.”
It was the first time that Raducanu, the 2021 Flushing Meadows winner, had reached the third round in Melbourne.
Swiatek, the 2022 champion in New York, is looking to improve on a patchy record at the Australian Open, where she has only reached one semi-final in 2022.
She is on course to do that in some style, having dropped just 10 games in her three matches so far.
She put the 22-year-old Raducanu under severe pressure from the start, forcing the Briton to save break points in her first service game.
It was to be the only game Raducanu won as the 23-year-old Pole took control, her depth, power and precision enabling her to reel off five straight games to take the set in 31 minutes.
Raducanu was feeling the heat and dropped her serve again at the start of the second.
At 0-5 30-0 on the Swiatek serve Raducanu had a brief glimmer of avoiding a dreaded 6-0 “bagel”.
But Swiatek snuffed out the chance, levelled at 30-30 with a forehand winner and an unreturned serve completed the demolition job in just 1hr 10min.
Ranked 61, Raducanu’s best Slam effort since winning the US Open has been a lone fourth-round at Wimbledon.
She pulled out of her Australian Open warm-up event in Auckland with a back niggle and needed an injury timeout for a tight leg muscle in the previous round.
Swiatek’s path to a maiden Grand Slam final is opening up.
With the in-form Coco Gauff and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the other half of the draw a potential semi-final against Elena Rybakina looms as her biggest hurdle.
Swiatek has a straightforward-looking assignment next against either Eva Lys from Germany, ranked 128, or Romania’s world number 82 Jaqueline Christian for a place in the quarter-finals.
Topics mentioned in this article
