BALL WHISPERER: Swiatek sends strong message in

BALL WHISPERER: Swiatek sends strong message in | Daily Tribune

MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Iga Swiatek warned Saturday her best was yet to come and the ball was “listening” to her as she sounded an ominous warning to her Australian Open rivals with a third-round rout of Emma Raducanu.

The five-time Grand Slam champion has only once reached the semifinal in Melbourne but signaled she is ready to go all the way with a 6-1, 6-0 destruction of the 2021 US Open winner.

World No. 2 Swiatek sailed into the second week for the loss of only 10 games in three matches and warned she would only get better.

“I feel much more fresh than for the past two years,” the Pole told reporters after rattling off 11 straight games in a brutal demolition of Britain’s Raducanu on Rod Laver Arena.

“The last two years I felt much more fatigue and also a bit more stress. For sure I can now just focus on improving my game.”

The relentless Swiatek hit 24 winners to all corners of the court.

“I played a few shots that I thought were after them, this is what I practise to play these kinds of shots, and that’s why I really enjoyed today’s match.”

“I felt great. I felt like the ball was listening to me,” said Swiatek, who committed just 12 unforced errors.

“I felt really confident, so at the end I could push for even more.”

It was the first time that Raducanu had reached the third round in Melbourne.

Ranked 61, Raducanu’s best Slam effort since winning the US Open has been a lone fourth-round at Wimbledon.

Swiatek, the 2022 champion in New York, is looking to improve on her patchy record at the Australian Open and was ruthless once she had Raducanu on the ropes.

She said it was important not to let up.

“I felt like she might have lost her belief a bit (in the second set),” she said.

“But honestly, you never know what’s going on on the other side of the net.”

“I know if I would not be so intense, if I would back out, she for sure would use it because she’s an experienced player.”

Swiatek put the 22-year-old Raducanu under severe pressure from the start, forcing the Briton to save breakpoints in her opening service game.

That was to be the only time Raducanu bothered the scoreboard as Swiatek, 23, was untouchable, winning in just 70 minutes.

Swiatek’s path to a first Australian Open final is opening up.

With the in-form Coco Gauff and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the other half of the draw a potential semi-final against Elena Rybakina looms as her biggest hurdle.

Swiatek next faces “lucky loser” Eva Lys from Germany, ranked 128 for a place in the quarterfinals.