No. 2 Iga Swiatek continued her quest to win a career Grand Slam, easily dispatching Czech Marie Bouzkova 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday to advance to the third round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Swiatek, of Poland, needed just 79 minutes to earn the victory, which sent her into the third round of a Grand Slam event for the 24th consecutive time. Swiatek hit 31 winners compared to just three for Bouzkova.
“It felt great playing today,” Swiatek said in an on-court interview. “I felt more free than in my first round, so I really wanted to go for it. And for sure, the conditions also weren’t easy. I don’t know if you guys feel that, but on the court it’s super windy.
“So I needed to adjust for that, and I’m really happy with the performance for sure.”
Swiatek has won six major events — four French Opens to go with titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — but has never reached the finals of the Australian Open.
Results were mixed for other seeded players in the late session. No. 4 Amanda Anisimova defeated Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-1, 6-4 and No. 5 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan eliminated Varvara Gracheva of France 7-5, 6-2, but No. 10 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland fell to Czech qualifier Nikola Bartunkova 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.
The 19-year-old Bartunkova is playing in her first Grand Slam event; Bencic had won 12 matches in a row.
“It’s a dream come true, because it was an unbelievable match from me,” Bartunkova said.
No. 13 Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic outlasted Australia’s Taylah Preston 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 and No. 21 Elise Mertens of Belgium cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima, but No. 24 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia fell 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to China’s Xinyu Wang.
No. 16 Naomi Osaka of Japan defeated Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in a contentious match that ended with a frosty handshake at mid-court. And in an all-Czech battle, 18-year-old Tereza Valentova took out 20-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 in a match that saw 13 break points won and 97 unforced errors.
Earlier Thursday, No. 6 Jessica Pegula and No. 9 defending champion Madison Keys advanced with wins over fellow Americans.
Pegula cruised past new doubles partner McCartney Kessler 6-0, 6-2 and Keys ousted Ashlyn Krueger, 6-1, 7-5.
In the third round, the reigning champ, Keys, will face resurgent and former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who knocked off Janice Tjen of Indonesia 6-4, 6-4.
Pegula might have been expecting to see No. 25 Paula Badosa on the other side of the net in the third round, but the Spainard was dismissed by Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-4, 6-4.
Pegula teamed up with Kessler for the first time on Wednesday, but the duo dropped their opening-round doubles match.
In their singles contest, Pegula took control from the outset, playing her usual brand of controlled tennis. She hit 10 winners and made only two unforced errors in the first set, which lasted just 21 minutes.
Kessler dropped the first eight games of the match before holding serve at love and then evening the second set at 2-2 by converting her second break-point chance of the fourth game. However, Pegula broke right back and was never threatened thereafter.
“I just tried to stay loose — got off to a really good start, which I was proud of, but then I lost it right back,” Pegula said. “She’s such a good competitor so I knew that at one point she was going to find a way to start playing better and work her way into the match.”
Pegula won 13 of 15 points on Kessler’s second serve and took the match in 58 minutes.
Keys nearly matched Pegula, winning the first set in 23 minutes. But Krueger produced three easy service games in the second set and broke Keys twice to take a 5-2 lead before Keys stormed to her ninth straight win in Melbourne.
“I think I started really well and Ashlyn started a little bit slow,” Keys said. “And then I was fully expecting her to raise her level, which she did. It just kind of got away from me a little quickly.”
–Field Level Media
