By; OSABUOHIEN IMUETINYANOSA
Iga Swiatek finally put a stop to Emma Raducanu’s Australian Open run on Saturday, with the Briton totally outclassed by world No. 2 Iga Swiatek at Rod Laver Arena.
In her first third-round appearance at Melbourne Park, Raducanu struggled to match the firepower of the five-time major winner and committed a plethora of unforced errors as Swiatek brilliantly dominant 6-1, 6-0 victory in one hour and 10 minutes.
“Today, the scoreline was obviously quite harsh,” said Raducanu. “Credit to Iga, she played good tennis, but I think it was a little bit of her playing well and me not playing so well. That combination is probably not good and resulted in today.”
Swiatek took control of the match early enough with so much resilience with an impressive fashion, winning the first six points and showcasing her trademark hustle and aggression. Her play was a proof of her determination to return back to world number one.
Nonetheless Raducanu being a powerful rival made her way back to secure her first service game, but it was one-way traffic from that point. Swiatek responded briskly, reeled off the next 11 games in quick time to secure her place in the fourth round and send an ominous warning to the rest of the draw.
Raducanu had an underwhelming performance all through the contest before her fans and admirers, she could only make 58% of her first serves, then proceeded in committing four double faults, and was called for a foot fault on three occasions. The stamina to fight her tension was lost by
The rallies also favoured Swiatek. Raducanu amassed an unforced error tally of 22 to just nine winners, a contrast to Swiatek’s 24 winners and 12 unforced errors.
“If I’m not necessarily able to hold my service games or kind of dictate, I feel like it seeps into the rest of my game,” said Raducanu. “On my second serves, how the point is structured from then on, and also in the return games … you feel a lot more pressure.”
Swiatek gazed beyond, as she thumps her opponent with decisive blows of 4-0, and a perfect 8-0 in sets, against Raducanu in her career. The world no 2 gave no chance .
Her quarter Finals awaits the winner between Eva Lys and Jaqueline Cristian on Monday.
