Rybakina earned the tenth win of her profession over a top-10 ranked opponent
| Venue: Melbourne Park Dates: 16-29 January |
| Protection: Commentary day-after-day from 07:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 Sports activities Additional ‘Tennis Breakfast’ dwell from Melbourne, with chosen dwell textual content commentaries and match reviews on the BBC Sport web site & app |
Prime seed Iga Swiatek is out of the Australian Open after dropping to Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina within the fourth spherical.
Rybakina, seeded twenty second, had struggled to copy the shows which noticed her win on the All England Membership in July.
However towards Swiatek the Kazakh confirmed once more how she thrives on the large stage, taking part in confidently and powerfully in a 6-4 6-4 win at Melbourne Park.
Lower than half an hour later, Coco Gauff misplaced 7-5 6-3 to Jelena Ostapenko.
American seventh seed Gauff, 18, was among the many favourites for the title however was overpowered by the seventeenth seed from Latvia.
Rybakina, 23, will play former French Open champion Ostapenko within the quarter-finals as a substitute of the match-up between Swiatek and Gauff that many predicted.
“I’m nervous each time I’m on court docket however I attempt to present calm. It’s a massive win and I am comfortable to be in one other spherical,” Rybakina mentioned.
Poland’s Swiatek rose to the highest of the world rankings final 12 months following the retirement of Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, occurring to win the French Open and US Open titles as she dominated the WTA Tour.
Rybakina’s success has been extra sporadic. Between claiming essentially the most prestigious title in tennis and the beginning of this 12 months’s Australian Open, she received simply 14 of her 24 matches and has spoken out concerning the lack of recognition she feels she has been given.
She has additionally struggled with robust attracts, together with her world rating decrease than anticipated after receiving no factors for her Wimbledon victory.
However she has made one other spectacular assertion at Melbourne Park, reaching the final eight for the primary time with a dominant win over Swiatek.
The pair exchanged breaks early within the opening set earlier than a double fault from Swiatek at 3-3 gave Rybakina one other probability, which she took with a whopping cross-court backhand winner.
A assured maintain to like sealed the one-set benefit, however Swiatek improved at the beginning of the second set and moved right into a 3-0 lead.
Rybakina shortly fought again and levelled for 3-3 as Swiatek struggled to take care of her hefty serve.
She dropped simply six factors on her first serve within the match and registered a powerful held to like to safe after breaking for 5-4.
“It was a extremely robust match. I actually respect Iga,” mentioned Rybakina.
“Right this moment I feel I used to be serving good. Within the essential moments I performed rather well so it made the distinction.”