Australian Open: World No.1 Iga Swiatek eliminated in round of 16 by Elena Rybakina

Europe 1 with AFP 06:38, January 22, 2023, modified at 06:41, January 22, 2023

Iga Swiatek, world N.1, semi-finalist last year and one of the favorites for the 2023 edition, will not have passed the round of 16 of the Australian Open, speeded up by the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, Sunday in Melbourne.

The shock of the seventh day opposes in the evening Stefanos Tsitsipas, 4th in the world, to Jannik Sinner (16th): last year, the Greek had eliminated the Italian in quarters.

This time, it is for a place at this stage that they compete.

But the day started with Swiatek's clean and smooth ousting.

"I served very well and played very well in the important moments. It's a great victory for me", rejoiced Rybakina.

"Elena was the strongest"

The tall Kazakh (1.83m) of Russian origin, born 23 years ago in Moscow, scored 24 winners (against 15 for Swiatek) and won four break points out of the six played on her opponent's serve when the latter only managed to make two of her four break points.

"Elena was the most solid. She was the one who would put the most pressure on the other at the start of the game and she did it very well," agreed Swiatek, pointing out that the Kazakh had hammered her with her "huge serve" (6 aces).

And the 21-year-old Pole regretted her own lack of reaction: "I felt the pressure and I felt that I didn't want to lose instead of feeling that I wanted to win," she explained, adding having to find "the state of mind" which had allowed him to achieve an exceptional season last year.

Rybakina had never made it past the third round before.

In three appearances so far at the Australian Major, Rybakina had never made it past the third round.

She will face Jelena Ostapenko (17th) on Tuesday to try to climb into the last four.

Because the 25-year-old Latvian put an end to the career of the American Coco Gauff (7th), beaten 7-5, 6-3, and will play her first quarter in Melbourne.

"I had nothing to lose so I fought to make every point difficult for her. I kept her under such pressure that she broke down," Ostapenko commented with a broad smile.

Champion at Roland-Garros in 2017, she had never passed the third round in the Australian Major and had not reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon 2018.

Two other round of 16 ladies at the top of the table are on the program on Sunday: the American Jessica Pegula (3rd), who flew over her first three rounds, faces the Czech Barbora Krejcikova (23rd) and the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (24th), alone winner of the Antipodes Major still in the table (she herself eliminated the second, Sofia Kenin, in the first round), plays against the Chinese Lin Zhu (87th).