MELBOURNE, Australia -- The only women's match featuring Grand Slam singles champions in the third round at the Australian Open turned out to be a lopsided win by Iga Swiatek over Emma Raducanu on Saturday.
Swiatek won the final 11 games of the match to beat Raducanu 6-1, 6-0 and become the first player through to the fourth round. The No. 2-ranked Swiatek, who agreed to accept a one-month suspension in a doping case late last year, has won the French Open four times and the US Open in 2022. Raducanu was the 2021 US Open champion.
"I hit a few shots and afterwards I thought, 'This is what I practice for.' From the beginning I felt like I was playing well," said Swiatek, who won 59 points and lost 29 in the match. "I felt pretty confident, so at the end I could push for even more."
Eighth-seeded Emma Navarro is also into the fourth round after beating Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Navarro has now played in 30 three-set matches at WTA level since the start of 2024, the most of any player over that span.
Navarro was joined by another American into the fourth round, 20-year-old Alex Michelsen, who beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round. On Saturday, Michelsen beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2.
"I played unbelievably, I don't really know what's going on," he said on-court after his win. "I am super happy . . . not a lot of words right now."