MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — It all happened so easily for Iga Swiatek in a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Emma Raducanu on Saturday in the only Australian Open women’s third-round match between two former Grand Slam champions — if you thought that meant it would be close, you would have been pretty wrong — this is how she described it:
“I felt like the ball,” Swiatek said, “was listening to me.”
Loud and clear. When asked to explain the feeling, Swiatek spread her two index fingers a few inches apart and replied, “It’s just being able to aim for that kind of space.” Then she spread her palms more than a foot apart to show that that was the margin for error on other days.
The difference, she says, comes down to “being more precise and actually knowing where the ball is going, seeing the spins you want.”
When the five-time major champion and former longtime No. 1-ranked woman – now No. 2, behind Aryna Sabalenka – is at the peak of her powers, as she certainly appeared to be in the first week at Melbourne Park, it is difficult for anyone to slow down Swiatek.
Heavy, bouncy forehands. Squeaky sneakers struggle to reach every shot. The wonderful comeback. And so on.
Later Saturday, No. 4 Taylor Fritz, last year’s US Open finalist, became the highest-ranked player to leave the group, beaten by Gaël Monfils, 38, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6. (1), 6-4. Monfils joined Roger Federer as the only man 38 or older to advance to the fourth round in Melbourne since the field expanded to 128 players in 1988.
At the other end of the age bracket, two young Californians who have been friends for some time and trained together in the offseason – Learner Tien, 19, and Alex Michelsen, 20 – made their debut at the fourth round of a major tournament. Ben Shelton, 22, also won. No. 1 Jannik Sinner, however, eliminated the American Marcos Giron 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
Tien, qualified 121st, continued his surprising victory against No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in a five-set match that ended at 3 a.m. Friday with a 7-6 (10), 6-3, 6-3 victory on Corentin Moutet. from France. Michelsen, ranked 42nd, beat No. 19 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2. It was the second time Michelsen eliminated a top-20 seed this week after beating No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 2023 Australian Open finalist, in the first round.
Shelton, 21st seed and 2023 US Open semifinalist, beat 16th-ranked Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) and will face Monfils on Monday .
Michelsen will look to dispatch another top seed when he faces No. 8 Alex de Minaur, an Australian who beat No. 31 Francisco Cerúndolo 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6 -3. Tien faces Italian Lorenzo Sonego, 55th, winner 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6), 6-1, 6-2 against Fabian Marozsan.
Against Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualifier, Swiatek played at a level she called “perfect.”
Indeed, Swiatek took a 24-9 lead in winners, made only 12 unforced errors – about half of Raducanu’s 22 – and won 59 points to 29. This led one spectator to shout: ” No mercy! in the second set as Swiatek was rebounding in the final 11 games after the match was tied at 1-all early, without a cloud in the sky and a temperature approaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit (above 25 Celsius).
“I think it was a little bit because she was playing well, and I wasn’t playing so well,” Raducanu said. “This combination is probably not good.”
Fair.
Swiatek, who accepted a one-month suspension in a doping case late last year, has four French Open trophies and one from the US Open. But she never made it past the semi-finals in Australia; she lost in this round to Danielle Collins in 2022.
A year ago, Swiatek was surprised in the third round by teenager Linda Noskova.
Swiatek, who said he dedicated Saturday’s victory to his grandfather, has conceded a total of just 10 games in three matches with new coach Wim Fissette sitting on the pitch. Next up is 128th-ranked Eva Lys of Germany, who lost in qualifying but was awarded a spot in the main draw following someone’s withdrawal about 10 minutes before her first-round match.
Lys beat Jaqueline Cristian 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 and is the first “lucky loser” to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open since the tournament moved to Melbourne Park in 1988.
Others who will now have the chance to play for a quarterfinal spot after Saturday’s wins include No. 6 Elena Rybakina, No. 8 Emma Navarro and No. 9 Daria Kasatkina. Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, beat No. 32 Dayana Yastremska 6-3, 6-4, Navarro eliminated three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 and Kasatkina beat No. 24 Yulia. Putintseva 7-5, 6-1. Unseeded Veronika Kudermetova beat No. 15 Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4, 6-2.
No. 4 Jasmine Paolini, a two-time Grand Slam finalist, was eliminated by No. 28 Elina Svitolina 2-6, 6-4, 6-0.
Navarro, who reached his first major semifinal at Flushing Meadows in September, won his three matches in Melbourne this year in three sets. This means she has competed in 30 three-setters on the tour since the start of last season, the most of any player.
“I love three sets. I love tennis so much I can’t resist,” joked Navarro, who grew up in South Carolina and won an NCAA singles title at the University of Virginia. “I just wanted to stay there and continue to believe in myself.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis editor since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
