Australian Open: Iga Swiatek beats Emma Raducanu in straight sets tennis news
Everything went so smoothly for Iga Swiatek during her 6-1, 6-0 victory over Emma Raducanu at the Australian Open on Saturday in the only women’s third-round match between the last two Grand Slam champions.
If you thought that meant it would be close, you were wrong — he described it this way: “I felt like the ball,” Swiatek said, “was listening to me.”
Asked to explain that sensation, Swiatek placed his two index fingers a few inches apart and said, “It’s just being able to hit a spot like that.” Then he spread his palms more than a foot to show that on other days there is that much margin for error.
The difference, he said, comes in “being more accurate and really knowing where the ball is going to go, seeing the effects you want”.
When the five-time major champion and former longtime No. 1-ranked woman – now No. 2, behind Aryna Sabalenka – is at the height of her powers, as she certainly seemed in Week 1 at Melbourne Park, It’s tough anyone can slow Swiatek down.
Heavy-spinning, high-bouncing forehand. A squeaky sneaker scrambling to reach every shot. Great comeback. And so on.
Against Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open as a teen qualifier, Swiatek played at a level she called “perfect.”
In fact, Swiatek led 24–9 in winners, made only 12 unforced errors – almost half of Raducanu’s 22 – and claimed 59 points against 29. This caused one spectator to shout, “No mercy!” Swiatek was struggling in the last 11 games in the second set as the match was initially tied at 1–1 with not a cloud in the sky and the temperature reaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit (above 25 Celsius).
“I think a little bit of it was him playing well, and me not playing as well,” Raducanu said. “That combination is probably not a good one.”
Swiatek, who agreed to accept a one-month suspension in a doping case late last year, has four trophies from the French Open and one from the US Open. But in Australia she never advanced beyond the semi-finals; She lost in that round to Danielle Collins in 2022. A year earlier, Swiatek was upset in the third round by teenager Linda Noskova.
Swiatek dedicated Saturday’s win to his grandfather, and his razor-sharp focus is most evident in the fact that he has lost only 10 games overall through three games with new coach Wim Fiset sitting on the court.
Next up will be 128th-ranked Eva Liss of Germany, who lost in qualifying but was given a spot in the main draw when someone withdrew about 10 minutes before her first-round match.
Lis defeated Jacqueline Christian 4–6, 6–3, 6–3 and became the first “lucky loser” to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open since the tournament moved to Melbourne Park in 1988.
Others who will now have a chance to make the quarterfinals after Saturday’s win include No. 6 Elena Rybakina, No. 8 Emma Navarro and No. 9 Daria Kasatkina. 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina defeated No. 32 Dayana Yastremska 6-3, 6-4, Navarro beat three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 and Kasatkina defeated No. 24 Yulia Putintseva. Defeated. -5, 6-1. Unseeded Veronika Kudermetova defeated No. 15 Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4, 6-2.
No. 4 Jasmine Paolini, a two-time Slam finalist, was defeated by No. 28 Elina Svitolina 2-6, 6-4, 6-0.
Navarro, who reached her first major semi-final at Flushing Meadows in September, has won all three of her matches in Melbourne this year in three sets. This means she has been involved in 30 tour-level three-setters since the start of last season, the most of any female player.
“I like three sets. I love tennis so much, I can’t resist,” joked Navarro, who grew up in South Carolina and won NCAA singles titles at the University of Virginia. “I just wanted to hang in there and believe in myself.”
