Swiatek finds way into Round 3
MELBOURNE — Topranked Iga Swiatek rallied from 4-1 down in the third set to escape with a narrow 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win over 2022 runner-up Danielle Collins on Thursday and advance to the third round of the Australian Open.
Swiatek held the momentum to start after recovering an early break, leading by a set and a break before the American player rallied to take the second set and race to a 4-1 lead in the third.
Swiatek absorbed sustained pressure from Collins’s powerful groundstrokes until regaining momentum and going on a match-winning five-game roll.
“Oh my God. I don’t even know,” Swiatek said of how she managed to come back. “Honestly, I was on the airport already. But I wanted to fight to the end.
“I’m really proud of myself, because it wasn’t easy.”
Swiatek had two match points at 15-40 in the last game but Collins rallied, saving those and getting a game point with a trademark forehand winner deep to Swiatek’s backhand side.
But a forehand long and a backhand wide from Collins gave Swiatek a third match point and she made no mistake this time, finishing in 3 hours and 14 minutes with a deep backhand down the line.
On the men’s side, defending champ Novak Djokovic unloaded on a heckler who crossed the line and angrily challenged the spectator to “say that to my face” and gestured to the man to come down onto the Rod Laver Arena court, the venue for 10 of his record 24 Grand Slam titles.
He then went on a roll, winning three straight games from 2-2 in the fourth set before finishing off Alexei Popyrin, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, in the second round.
The 36-year-old Serb then turned to the crowd again and yelled, pumping his fist to celebrate the victory.
Asked what triggered his rage, Djokovic responded: “I mean, you don’t want to know.”
“I was tolerating it for most of the match. At one point I had enough,” he said. “He didn’t have the courage to come down. That’s what I was asking him: ‘If you have courage, if you’re such a tough man, tough guy, come down and tell it to my face.’”
That didn’t happen. Djokovic didn’t ask for the man to be removed. Stadium security didn’t intervene.
Djokovic has been dealing with a sore wrist and said after his opening match — a fourhour, four-set win over 18-yearold qualifier Dino Prizmic — that he hasn’t been well. He was struggling against Popyrin, who is ranked 43rd.
Last year’s losing finalist, Stefanos Tsitsipas, also had a tough time against an Aussie.
Tsitsipas wasted match points in the 10th game of the fourth set and then had to save four set points to force a tiebreaker, which he clinched for a 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) win over Jordan Thompson.
Women’s champ Aryna Sabalenka and US Open winner Coco Gauff escaped to advance to the third round.
Sabalenka beat Brenda Fruhvirtova, 6-3, 6-2. Gauff took a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 win over fellow American Caroline Dolehide. Gauff will play Alycia Parks, who beat Leylah Fernandez, 7-5, 6-4.