Raducanu crushed by Swiatek in Melbourne

Australian Open 2025

Dates: 12-26 January Venue: Melbourne Park

Coverage: Live radio commentary on Tennis Breakfast from 07:00 GMT on BBC 5 Sports Extra, plus live text commentaries on the BBC Sport website and app

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.

Britain’s Raducanu was thrashed 6-1 6-0 in a chastening afternoon on Rod Laver Arena.

The world number 61 lost serve five times as Swiatek took just 70 minutes to secure victory.

It is the second time Raducanu has won just one game in a match, having lost 6-0 6-1 to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in Sydney three years ago.

“She played very well, but I also think I didn’t play very well. It’s just not a great combination,” Raducanu, 22, said.

Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek has never gone past the Melbourne semi-finals but her level against Raducanu sent another warning to her title rivals.

The 23-year-old Pole has not dropped a set or even a service game in her first three rounds in Melbourne.

“If a top player is playing perfect, it’s already going to be a difficult match,” Raducanu added.

While Raducanu and Swiatek both won Grand Slam titles as teenagers, their careers have followed very different paths since.

Raducanu famously won the 2021 US Open title as an 18-year-old qualifier but struggled with the spotlight 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 still finding her way back after dropping out of the world’s top 300.

Swiatek, however, continued to thrive after winning the 2020 French Open.

She has become dominant at Roland Garros, having won the title there for the past three years, and also claimed the US Open trophy in 2022.

Swiatek has won all four of her meetings with Raducanu – and the gulf between the pair is stark.

Raducanu was unable to cope with Swiatek’s top spin-heavy groundstrokes and athleticism, making a host of errors from the baseline as the pressure told on her backhand in particular.

Losing serve early was a fatal blow against a superb front-runner like Swiatek, who went on to secure the 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 in the return games, you feel a lot more pressure.

“That was probably a big aspect today.”

While 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 first Grand Slam of the season were hampered by a back injury, and she arrived in Melbourne having not played since November.

Despite hitting 15 double faults as her serve developed a “mind of its own”, Raducanu showed heart to beat Russian 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the first round.

Her second-round match against Amanda Anisimova of the United States was even more of a scrap, with Raducanu “pushing past the pain” to come from behind in both sets and win.

Raducanu seemed to have no problems with her movement against Swiatek but she grew increasingly subdued as the match ran away from her.

“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.”