Everything was so easy for Iga Swiatek during her 6-1, 6-0 win over Emma Raducana at the Australian Open on Saturday in the only women’s third-round match between the two past Grand Slam winners.
If you thought that meant it was going to be close, you’d be wrong — this is how she described it: “I felt like the ball,” Swiatek said, “was listening to me.”
Asked to explain the feeling, Swiatek spread her two index fingers a few inches apart and said, “It’s just being able to target this kind of space.” Then she spread her palms more than a foot apart to show that it was room for error on other days.
The difference, she said, comes down to “being more precise and actually knowing where the ball is going to go, seeing the effects you want.”
When the five-time major champion and former longtime No. 1 woman — now No. 2, behind Arya Sabalenka — is at the height of her powers, as she appeared to be in week one at Melbourne Park, it’s hard for anyone to slow down Swiatek.
Forehands that spin hard, bounce high. A squeaky sneaker that fights for every frame. Great comeback. And so on.
Against Raducan, who won the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualifier, Swiatek played at a level she called “perfect.”
Indeed, Swiatek was outscored 24-9 in the winners, committed just 12 unforced errors – about half of Raducanu’s 22 – and scored 59 points to 29. That prompted one spectator to shout, “No mercy!” in the second set as Swiatek played the final 11 games after the match was tied early at 1-all with not a cloud in the sky and temperatures approaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit (above 25 Celsius).
“I think a little bit she played well and I didn’t play that well,” Raducanu said. “That combination is probably not a good one.”
Swiatek, who agreed to accept a one-month doping suspension late last year, owns four French Open trophies and one US Open. But she never made it past the semi-finals in Australia; she lost in that round to Danielle Collins in 2022. A year ago, Swiatek was upset in the third round by teenager Linda Noskova.
Swiatek dedicated Saturday to her grandfather, and her razor focus is most evident in surrendering just 10 total games through three games with new coach Wim Fissette sitting on the court.
Next up will be 128th-ranked Eva Lys 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.
Lys defeated Jaqueline Cristian 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to become 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 get a chance to play for a place in the quarterfinals after victories on Saturday include No. 6 Elena Rybakina, No. 8 Emma Navarro and No. 9 Daria Kasatkina. Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, defeated 32nd-ranked Dayana Yastremska 6-3, 6-4, Navarro eliminated three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 and Kasatkina outlasted 24th-ranked Yulia Putintsev 7 -5, 6-1. Unseeded Veronika Kudermetova beat No. 15 Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4, 6-2.
No. 4 Jasmine Paolini, who is a two-time Slam finalist, was eliminated 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 straight sets. This means that since the beginning of last season, she has participated in 30 tournaments in three sets, the most of any player.
“I like 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 hang in there and keep believing in myself.”
