The Australian Open experienced its biggest surprise in the women’s draw this Saturday. Iga Swiatek bid farewell to the first Grand Slam of the season after losing to Czech Linda Noskova 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a match that started to dominate but lost control when his rival took a step away.
The world number 1, who had already suffered unspeakable in the second round to beat Danielle Collins, continues his particular curse in the first Grand Slam of the seasonwhere they have never made it past the round of 16.
Noskova, 50th in the world, played a very complete match, with a strong serve and numbers higher than the Pole, who finished with 34 winners and 33 unforced errors.
It was the first loss of the season for Swiatekwho arrived in Melbourne having won all five of their United Cup matches.
Things got better for Victoria Azarenka (18), who beat Jelena Ostapenko for the fourth time in four matches (6-1 and 7-5).
“I knew I had to start the game very strong and put as much pressure as possible to not let him dominate.. I think I did very well in the first set,” commented the champion at Melbourne Park in the 2012 and 2013 editions.
Ostapenko, who returned to the top-10 for the first time since 2018 with her Adelaide crown, He has a record of eight wins and two losses in 2024and both stumbles were against Belarusians.
For his part, the two-time champion claimed what was his 50th victory at Melbourne Park and took a step closer to her mark from the last edition, where she achieved a creditable semi-final after losing to Kazakh Elena Rybakina (3).
Other tennis players who achieved fifty victories on the banks of the Yarra River during the Open era were Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis.
His next obstacle is Ukraine’s previous Daria Yastremska23 years old, who defeated American Emma Navarro (27) 6-2, 2-6 and 6-1.
The Belarusian has a favorable head-to-head of 2-1 after reversing the first loss and scoring the last two matches in two sets.
They also passed the third round, and will face each other in the round of 16, the Italian Jasmine Paolini (26) and the Russian Anna Kalinskayaafter defeating the Russian Anna Blinkova (7-6(1) and 6-4) and the American Sloane Stephens (6-7(8), 6-1 and 6-4.
Source: La Verdad
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