The women's third-round matchup between two former Grand Slam champions — if you thought that would be a tough contest, you'd have been quite off — that was her takeaway.
“Feeling like the ball was attuned to what I was doing,” Swiatek said.
Swiatek quite clearly explained that particular feeling in tennis, bringing her index fingers just a few inches apart to say that the right technique makes it possible to hit just that small space.
It comes down to "being more precise and actually knowing where the ball is going to go, seeing the effects you want it to."
Is at the prime of her abilities, as it would appear she is in Week 1 at Melbourne Park, it's challenging for anyone to stop Swiatek.
The powerful backhands from close to the body. The quick, scrambling movements to react to each shot. The excellent shot returns. And so on.
Returning to the main event, singles semifinals matchups will feature: 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1), 6-4. Gael Monfils tied Roger Federer for the unique distinction of being among the oldest at 38 or older to reach the Melbourne fourth round since the singles field was increased to 128 players back in 1988.
The 20-year-old tennis player made his major tournament debut in the fourth round. Ben Shelton, who is 22, had a winning start too. In contrast, number one seed Jannik Sinner defeated American Marcos Giron 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and will now face 13th-seeded Holger Rune in his next match. Rune won out against Miomir Kecmanovic, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Tien, a qualifier ranked 121st, followed up his surprising win against No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in a five-set match that ended at 3 am on Friday with a 7-6 (10), 6-3, 6-3 win over France's Corentin Moutet. Michelsen, ranked 42nd, dominated Russia's 19th seeded Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2. This was the second time that Michelsen beat a top-20 seeded player this week after taking down No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, the runner-up at the 2023 Australian Open, in the first round.
Shelton, the 21st seeded player who made it to the semifinals of the U.S. Open in 2023, beat 16th seeded Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) and will play Monfils on Monday.
Michelsen is set to try and send another top seed home when he faces off against Australia's eighth-ranked Alex de Minaur, who previously beat 31st-ranked Argentina's Francisco Cerúndolo 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-3. Tien is matched against Italy's 55th-ranked Lorenzo Sonego, who won a tough match 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6), 6-1, 6-2 over Fabian Marozsan.
Against Raducanu, who won the 2021 U.S. Open as a teenage qualifier, Swiatek played at a level she described as "perfect."
Indeed, Swiatek gained a 24-9 advantage in winners, made just 12 unforced errors – roughly half of Raducanu's 22 – and claimed 59 points to 29. That prompted one spectator to exclaim, “No mercy!” in the second set as Swiatek took the last 11 games after the first set was knotted at 1-all early, in a clear blue sky with temperatures nearing 80 degrees Fahrenheit (above 25 Celsius).
“I think it was a bit of her playing well, and me not playing so well,” Raducanu said. “The combination of those two things is probably not good.”
Fair.
In the latter part of last year, she held four titles from the French Open and one from the U.S. Open. However, she has yet to progress past the semifinals in Australia; she was defeated in that round by Danielle Collins in 2022.
A year ago, Swiatek was beaten by teenager Linda Noskova in the third round.
Next up will be 128th-ranked Eva Lys of Germany, who was initially eliminated in qualifying, but was granted entry into the main draw when an opponent dropped out just before her first-round match.
Lys beat Jaqueline Cristian 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and is the first "lucky loser" to make it to the fourth round at the Australian Open since the tournament moved to Melbourne Park in 1988.
Other players who now have a shot at reaching the quarterfinals after Saturday's wins include No. 6 Elena Rybakina, No. 8 Emma Navarro, and No. 9 Daria Kasatkina. Rybakina, last year's Wimbledon champ, took down No. 32 Dayana Yastremska 6-3, 6-4, Navarro defeated three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, and Kasatkina edged No. 24 Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 6-1. Unseeded Veronika Kudermetova won over No. 15 Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-4, 6-2.
No. 4-ranked Jasmine Paolini, a two-time Slam finalist, was defeated by No. 28-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-2, 4-6, 0-6.
Collins got medical treatment on her left knee during the second set.
Navarro, who reached her first major semifinal at Flushing Meadows in September, has won all three of her matches in Melbourne this year in three sets. That means she has been involved in 30 tour-level three-setters since the start of last season, the most of any female player.
“Tennis in sets of three is awesome. I'm completely obsessed with the sport, it's crazy, I just can't say no,” joked Navarro, who grew up in South Carolina and won a singles title at the University of Virginia. “I just wanted to keep going and believe in myself.”
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(Vitaly Petrov of Russia) century. "I'm getting about 20 kilograms of meat monthly.
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