Unreachable Swiatek
Another contender is Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (No. 7), who displayed his best game in Melbourne to beat Francisco Cerúndolo (No. 29) 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. last Argentine alive in the painting.
After two matches with erratic starts, the Canadian trained by Toni Nadal, the uncle of the Spanish champion, quickly took the first set against the man from Buenos Aires.
More aggressive in the rest and dominant with his right, Cerúndolo managed to equalize, but was surpassed by Auger-Aliassime, who will play against the Czech Jiri Lehecka, winner of the British Cameron Norrie.
Having learned the lesson of the bumps from big names such as Nadal, Ruud or the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the Polish Iga Swiatek began her cross against the Spanish Cristina Bucsa (N. 100) in a steamroller mode.
In just 55 minutes, she endorsed a final 6-0, 6-1 victory over the Spanish, who had just eliminated Canadian Bianca Andreescu, former winner of the US Open.
“I saw Cristina and I knew she can be solid, so I didn’t want her to come back,” said the Pole, who only conceded six points in the first set.
In the round of 16, the current champion of Roland Garros and the United States Open, who has not yet dropped a set, will face the winner at Wimbledon, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina.
The hangover of the Murray-Kokkinakis
Also expeditious were the Americans Jessica Pegula (N. 3) and Coco Gauff (N. 7), who settled their rounds in two sets and will face the Czech Barbora Krejcikova and the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, respectively, in the round of 16.
The Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, champion in Australia in 2012 and 2013, she also passed the round, while the Greek Maria Sakkari fell to an emotional Chinese Zhu Lin.
Off the court, the hangover from the epic match between Scotsman Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis still lingered, a five-hour, 45-minute battle that ended at 04:05, the third late match in history.
Faced with criticism, the person in charge of the Open, Craig Tiley, defended that they must “fit the matches in 14 days.” “There aren’t many options,” he said.
But tennis players like Pegula disagreed. “This is not healthy (…) It is something that definitely needs to be addressed and changed,” he said.
Instead, Tsitsipas considered it inevitable, and even positive for the sport. “I think tennis likes these matches because there’s a story behind it and it’s going to be remembered,” he said.