Raducanu crushed by Swiatek in Melbourne

In the third round of the Australian Open, British player Emma Raducanu suffered one of the most crushing defeats of her career. As the second seed, Iga Świątek displayed absolute dominance in the match, defeating Raducanu in an overwhelming fashion.

At Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, the 22-year-old Raducanu was defeated with a score of 1-6, 0-6 in a match that lasted only 1 hour and 10 minutes. This is the second time in her career that she has won only one game in a match, the last time being three years ago in Sydney when she lost 0-6, 1-6 to Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina.

Five-time Grand Slam champion Świątek performed exceptionally well in the match, sending another warning to her championship rivals. The 23-year-old from Poland has now won three consecutive matches in straight sets in this tournament and has not lost a single service game. "I’m just enjoying playing," Świątek said, who successfully converted 5 of 12 break points. "I’m hitting the balls that I’m expecting to hit in practice. I feel very confident and in the end I could push more. It’s important to convert all these break points, so I’m happy with my performance."

Although both Raducanu and Świątek won Grand Slam titles as juniors, their career trajectories have been vastly different. Raducanu initially struggled to cope with the attention after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier in 2021. The rigors of playing full-time on the WTA tour have also taken their toll. A series of injuries ultimately led to her undergoing wrist and ankle surgery in 2023, and Raducanu’s world ranking has fallen outside the top 300, and she is still trying to recover. In contrast, Świątek has continued to thrive after winning the 2020 French Open, winning three more titles at Roland Garros and the US Open in 2022. Świątek had previously won all three of her professional matches against Raducanu, and the gap between the two remains significant.

Raducanu was unable to cope with Świątek’s heavy topspin baseline shots and athleticism, frequently making errors from the baseline, especially on her backhand, and the pressure was evident. Losing serve early on was fatal against a player of Świątek’s caliber. Świątek showed her ruthless side, achieving the 78th "bagel" of her career. Despite the painful nature of this loss, Raducanu will try to take positives from her best career result at Melbourne Park. The British player's preparation for the first Grand Slam of the season was hampered by a back injury, which meant she withdrew from the warm-up event in Auckland and had not played since mid-November. Despite her serve being "all over the place" and 15 double faults, Raducanu showed determination in her first-round match, defeating Russia's 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova. Her second-round match against American Amanda Anisimova was even tougher, where she fought back from a break down in each set and required treatment twice, "playing through the pain" to win another straight-sets victory. It is unclear whether she was physically affected in her match against Świątek. While she looked increasingly frustrated as the match went on, Raducanu appeared to be moving well, simply unable to match Świątek's power.