The 2023 Australian Open women’s singles tournament has seen relatively few surprises thus far. Most of the top players on the WTA Tour are still alive through two rounds, with top seed Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff both booking their tickets to the third round with impressive wins.
However, there has been one notable upset early on, with two-time Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova crashing out early.
Read on below as SBOTOP catches you up with all the latest news and updates from the women’s singles at the Australian Open.
Iga Swiatek storms to second-round win
Iga Swiatek currently holds two of the four Grand Slams – the French Open and the US Open – and the World No 1 on the WTA Tour is on a mission to grab a third in the Australian Open.
Swiatek is safely through to the third round in Melbourne after sweeping past Colombian Camila Osorio in straight sets, 6-2 6-3, in the second round.
Swiatek’s serve has been a bit off thus far. She put just 49% of her first serves in play in her first-round win over Jule Niemeier, with three double faults. And against Osorio, while she successfully put an impressive 80% of her first serves in play, she gave up three break points to the young Colombian.
But Swiatek hit back with six break points of her own as she was never truly threatened despite Osorio’s best efforts.
“It was really intense physically and Camila was running to every ball, she didn’t give up,” Swiatek said.
“She didn’t give me many points for free, so I needed to really work for each one of them, but I’m happy that I was consistent in being proactive and trying to just play a little faster to put pressure,” Świątek added.
Swiatek, who is the big favourite to win it all in Melbourne according to the Australian Open 2023 odds, will take on Cristina Bucsa in the third round.
Coco Gauff knocks out US Open champ Raducanu
Coco Gauff’s strong start to the season continued as she ousted another young WTA Tour star, 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, 6-3 7-6(4), in the second round.
The World No 7 saved eight out of 10 break points – including six of seven in the first set – to win the opening set in just 43 minutes.
And while Raducanu rallied to force a tiebreak in the second set, Gauff was able to hold off the Brit to book her place in the third round.
“I think it was a tough match for me,” Gauff said. “The conditions, were a lot different from my first-round match, playing 11:00 in the day with the roof open to playing at night in heavy conditions.
“It was really tough to kind of fight. In a lot of those points I was just trying to hang in there. For the most part I think I did well today. There’s no way you can go through a whole tournament playing every match perfect, so I think it’s all about being resilient when you need to.”
Gauff is having a great start to her 2023 campaign. She remains unbeaten and has yet to drop a set through seven matches this season. She was dominant en route to winning the ASB Classic in Auckland, the third title of her burgeoning career.
Grand Slam champ Petra Kvitova crashes out in second round
Raducanu isn’t the only former Grand Slam champion who has made an early exit in Melbourne. Among the most noteworthy of the early Australian Open 2023 results has been two-time Wimbledon Petra Kvitova crashing out in the second round to Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina, who won 7-5 6-4.
The 32-year-old Kvitova, who also made the Australian Open final in 2019, became just the third top-20 seed, after No 8 Daria Kasatkina and No 14 Beatriz Haddad Maia, to exit the tournament.
“I felt that she didn’t miss at all. She hit all the shots back to me, defending very well, moving very well, playing pretty fast as well,” Kvitova said post-match. “It was really tough to find something how I could make it. I tried some slices, drop shots, but she was playing very, very well today. So, yeah, she deserved to win for sure. It was a good match for sure.” The 25-year-old Kalinina will make her first appearance in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament. She will face No 20 seed Barbora Krejcikova, who defeated French qualifier Clara Burel, 6-4 6-1.
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