WIMBLEDON CHAMP RYBAKINA SWATS SWIATEK ASIDE
World No. 1 Pole outplayed by Kazakh opponent as Gauff’s campaign ends in tears
TIf I perform like I did this week, and if it’s going to be consistently, then for sure I will say that I can be number one. I can beat anyone.” Elena Rybakina » Russian-born Kazakh star
Rybakina did not get any ranking points for winning Wimbledon because of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players.
op seed Iga Swiatek was bundled out of the Australian Open fourth round yesterday, with title threat Coco Gauff also exiting in tears, as a pair of underestimated Grand Slam champions tore open the women’s draw.
World No 1 Swiatek was sent packing by Elena Rybakina in the early match at Rod Laver Arena, the Pole falling 6-4, 6-4 to the Kazak Wimbledon winner, who started her tournament in the Melbourne Park wilderness of Court 13.
Rybakina shrugged off the scheduling snub before the fourth round showdown but used it as fuel in her first appearance on centre court as a tightly wound Swiatek slowly unravelled.
Rybakina, who was born in Moscow but represents Kazakhstan, told reporters she has “a lot of things to improve” but is aiming for the top.
“If I perform like I did this week, and if it’s going to be consistently, then for sure I will say that I can be number one,” the 23-year-old said.
“I can beat anyone.” Rybakina did not get any ranking points for winning Wimbledon because of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, meaning her world ranking of 25 does not accurately reflect her growing stature in the women’s game.
“It doesn’t bother me because it’s been already six months after Wimbledon and the year just started,” said Rybakina, who is seeded 22nd but would have been well inside the top 10 had her Wimbledon win been rewarded in the rankings.
Feeling the pressure
Swiatek, who dominated last season with two Grand Slam wins, said: “I felt the pressure, and I felt that I don’t want to lose instead of I want to win,” “I felt like I took a step back in terms of how I approach these tournaments, and I maybe wanted it a little bit too hard.”
The result means this year’s Australian Open will be the first Grand Slam tournament in the open era where the top two seeds in both the men’s and women’s singles draws have lost prior to the quarter-finals.
Rybakina, the 22nd seed, might have expected to face Gauff in the quarter-finals but the much-hyped American teenager was upset 7-5, 6-3 by Jelena Ostapenko, the forgotten Grand Slam winner of women’s tennis.
The 2017 French Open champion thrashed 30 winners past Gauff on Margaret Court Arena, her last two sealing the match in style to leave the 18-year-old in tears at her post-match media conference.
“I feel like it was rough,” Gauff told reporters, before breaking down with emotion. “When you play a player like her and she plays really well, it’s like, you know, there’s nothing you can do.”
The win secured a first Australian Open quarter-final for hard-hitting Ostapenko, as well as the first at a major since her run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2018.