Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina won the battle of grand slam champions against Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open, eliminating the top seed from the tournament at Rod Laver Arena.
After three easy wins, Swiatek’s mistakes finally caught up to her as Rybakina took advantage of her errors to take a statement win
The world no1, and the reigning French and US Open champion, got off to a rough start, surrendering her opening service game after receiving a warning from the chair umpire over the time she took for her pre-match preparations.
Swiatek fought back to level the scores by the fourth game but Rybakina broke her serve again, clinically attacking the Pole’s second serve to take the opening set.
The Pole looked to have recovered in time and pocketed three straight games at the start of the second set behind a more aggressive approach before Rybakina drew herself level with another break of serve.
She would break Swiatek again at 4-4 in the second set before holding her own serve to close out the match in convincing fashion.
After taking care of Swiatek, Rybakina awaits Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
Ostapenko herself earned an impressive 7-5, 6-3 win over Coco Gauff to reach the next round.
Jessica Pegula and Victoria Azarenka will take the court later today.
