Poland’s Iga Swiatek reacts after defeating Emma Raducanu of Britain in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, on January 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP
The only women’s match featuring Grand Slam singles champions in the third round at the Australian Open turned out to be an overpowering win by Iga Swiatek over Emma Raducanu on Saturday (January 18, 2025).
Swiatek won the final 11 games of the match to beat 2021 U.S. Open champion Raducanu 6-1, 6-0 and become the first player through to the fourth round.
The No. 2-ranked Swiatek, who agreed to accept a one-month suspension in a doping case late last year, has won the French Open four times and the U.S. Open in 2022. She is nearly halfway to a possible Australian title — her best result here has been a semifinal appearance in 2022, losing to eventual runner-up Danielle Collins.
“I hit a few shots and afterwards I thought, This is what I practice for.’ From the beginning I felt like I was playing well,” said Swiatek, who won 59 points and lost 29 in the match. “I felt pretty confident, so at the end I could push for even more.” Eighth-seeded Emma Navarro is also into the fourth round after beating Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Navarro has now played in 30 three-set matches at WTA level since the start of 2024, the most of any player over that span.
Navarro was joined by another American into the fourth round, 20-year-old Alex Michelsen, who beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round. On Saturday, Michelsen beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2.
“I played unbelievably, I don’t really know what’s going on,” he said on-court after his win. ”I am super happy . . . not a lot of words right now.”
Scratchy Navarro dumps Jabeur out
Emma Navarro ended the Australian Open of triple Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur, but it was another scratchy performance from the three-set specialist.
The 23-year-old American eighth seed clawed through 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena to make the last 16 in Melbourne for the first time
Emma Navarro of the U.S. celebrates winning her third round match against Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
She will play either Russian ninth seed Daria Kasatkina or Kazakh 24th seed Yulia Putintseva for a place in the quarter-finals.
But Navarro, the daughter of billionaire American businessman Ben Navarro, owner of Credit One Bank, again struggled to display the killer touch.
She only converted six from 14 break points and was herself broken six times.
It was the third match in a row she has needed three sets to progress.
No other WTA player has been through more three-setters than Navarro since the beginning of 2024, with the American going the distance 31 times.
“I love three sets,” she joked afterwards.
Navarro’s frailties were exposed in the first set when she raced 5-0 clear but then imploded, giving up the next four games, but hung on.
She was broken twice again early in set two and again at 5-3 with the Tunisian producing some astonishing drop shots to level the match.
But Jabeur fluffed her chance in set three, squandering three break points in the third game, with Navarro then breaking for 3-2 and rounding out the win
“I came out playing really well, but she had a really great four games (in set one),” said Navarro, a US Open semi-finalist last year.
“In the second set I just wanted to stick in there.”
Published – January 18, 2025 10:11 am IST
