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Britain’s Emma Raducanu suffered the joint heaviest defeat of her career as second seed Iga Swiatek demonstrated her superiority in a one-sided Australian Open third-round match.
Raducanu, 22, was thrashed 6-1 6-0 in a chastening afternoon on Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
The world number 61 lost serve five times in a defeat which took just one hour and 10 minutes.
It was the second time in her career that she lost with only a game to her name, following a 6-0 6-1 defeat by Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in Sydney three years ago.
“She played very well, but I also think that I didn’t play very well. It’s just not a great combination,” said Raducanu.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek, who has never gone past the Melbourne semi-finals, produced a level which fired another warning to her title rivals.
The 23-year-old from Poland has won her opening three matches in straight sets and not dropped a service game.
“If a top player is playing perfect, it’s going to be a difficult match already,” added Raducanu.
Gulf between Raducanu and Swiatek remains clear
While Raducanu and Swiatek both won Grand Slam titles as teenagers, their careers have followed very different paths since.
The Briton, who famously won the 2021 US Open title as an 18-year-old qualifier, initially struggled with the spotlight placed on her afterwards.
The rigours of playing full-time on the WTA Tour also took its toll.
A series of injuries culminated in wrist and ankle surgeries in 2023, with Raducanu dropping out of the world’s top 300 and still finding her way back.
In contrast, Swiatek continued to thrive after winning the 2020 French Open.
Three more victories on the clay courts at Roland Garros have been supplemented by a US Open triumph in 2022.
Swiatek had won all three of their previous professional meetings – and the gulf between the pair remains wide.
Raducanu was unable to cope with Swiatek’s top spin-heavy groundstrokes and athleticism, making a host of errors from the baseline – particularly on the backhand side – as the pressure told.
Losing serve early was a fatal blow against a superb front-runner like Swiatek, who showed her ruthless nature by securing a 78th ‘bagel’ of her tour-level career.
“The scoreline was obviously quite harsh,” said Raducanu.
“I’m very clear on what happened out there. If I’m not necessarily able to hold my service games or dictate, I feel like it seeps into the rest of my game.
“On my second serves, how the point is structured from then on, and also in the return games, you feel a lot more pressure.
“That was probably a big aspect today.”
Positives for Raducanu to take after back issue
While the nature of this defeat will sting, Raducanu will try to take the positives from a career-best run at Melbourne Park.
The English player’s preparations for the opening Grand Slam of the season were hampered by a back injury, meaning she pulled out of a warm-up event in Auckland and had not played since mid-November beforehand.
Despite her serve having a “mind of its own” and hitting 15 double faults, Raducanu showed heart to beat Russian 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the opening round.
Her second-round match against Amanda Anisimova of the United States was even more of a scrap.
Raducanu fought back from breaks down in each set and twice needed treatment as she pushed “past pain” to earn another straight-set win.
While she looked increasingly subdued as the match ran away from her, Raducanu seemed to be moving fine but simply could not live with Swiatek’s quality.
“There are no excuses with the back or physically,” said Raducanu, who only began hitting again three weeks ago.
“Given the preparation we had, we have to be grateful to be in this position.”
