Emma Raducanu exits Australian Open after defeat to reckless Iga Swiatek | Australian Open 2025

Over the past few years of professional tennis, the sight of Iga Swiatek annihilating another poor, defenseless opponent has become as certain as the sun will rise. When Swiatek’s game is flowing and her mind is clear, the combined quality of her ferocious shot, athleticism and persistent focus is so great that she has at one time or another given almost all the best players in the world spectators in their own matches.

On Saturday afternoon at Melbourne Park it was Emma Raducanu’s turn to endure such an unpleasant experience. Raducanu cut a lonely, solemn figure in one of the biggest tennis stadiums in the world as she was completely helpless against a supreme Swiatek who ruthlessly opened her bakery to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 victory.

In her first tournament of the season after back spasms significantly affected her pre-season training, Raducanu had reached the third round of the Australian Open for the first time in her career with two solid straight sets wins over Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 26th seed, and Amanda Anisimova . Both times, the 22-year-old demonstrated his fighting spirit and court sense against an ultra-aggressive but inconsistent opponent, outmaneuvering them to advance.

But there comes a time when no amount of fighting can replace pure quality balls and the ability to maintain a consistently high level of play. Since she first reached no. 1 nearly three years ago, Swiatek has been a standard bearer for women’s tennis, and the 23-year-old has put herself on the path to all-time greatness. There was never any doubt that Swiatek, a five-time grand slam champion, would show up and produce at a high level at Rod Laver Arena. The question was what exactly could Raducanu do to make his life difficult.

During the early exchanges, as both players settled down, Raducanu had some reasons to be positive. Despite facing two break points in her opening service game, Raducanu showed her athletic strengths and ability to turn points from defense to attack, absorb Swiatek’s considerable pace and then break back while holding serve for 1-1.

That hope would prove fleeting. With Swiatek quickly finding her range, she completely choked Raducanu from the baseline. Raducanu’s serve was soon completely under attack and the Pole decimated Raducanu’s meek second serve, lasering back almost every first serve with exceptional depth and pace, allowing her to immediately take the initiative in every point. Swiatek also served extremely well – she did not face a single break point – and completely dominated the baseline with her far superior pace and shot weight.

With the match all on Swiatek’s racket until the end, Raducanu looked extremely powerless and completely out of ideas. As Raducanu tried to wrest the initiative back from Swiatek, swing with freedom and aim for the lines, her error count continued to mount. Whenever she tried to patiently build the point, as is her usual approach, it wouldn’t take long for a heavy topspin forehand to fly past her as a clear winner.

As Swiatek rolled through 11 straight games to victory, a loud, encouraging call from a spectator rang out: “No mercy!” It wasn’t really necessary. Swiatek has long established himself as a peer front-runner, always ruthless to the end. As she always does, Swiatek left nothing to chance, sprinting all the way across the finish line, leaving her completely outmatched opponent in the dust.