World number two Iga Swiatek romped into the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday to set up a high-profile clash with 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu.
While Poland's Swiatek was racing past world number 49 Rebecca Sramkova 6-0, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena, Britain's Raducanu was entering uncharted waters on the nearby Kia Arena.
Raducanu had reached the second round in Melbourne on three previous occasions but never advanced further.
She was forced to battle in a topsy-turvy match against her good friend Amanda Anisimova, both players exchanging multiple breaks before she came through 6-3, 7-5.
On Melbourne Park's centre court, Swiatek broke the Slovakian's opening service game and never looked back.
Sramkova was playing in a Grand Slam second round for the first time and had no answer to the precision and power of the Pole.
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Swiatek won 64 per cent of points off the Slovakian's first serve in an opening set that lasted 27 minutes, the Pole dropping just 10 points.
Sramkova finally got on the board in the eighth game of the match, to huge cheers from a sympathetic crowd.
But Swiatek remained in control, closing out a comprehensive victory after exactly one hour.
"I felt really solid today and it was a really efficient game," said Swiatek. "I'm happy that I kept my focus."
'NOTHING TO LOSE'
Raducanu said she was looking forward to the challenge of playing against Swiatek.
"It will be a very good match for me," she said of facing the five-time Grand Slam champion.
Raducanu, now ranked 61, missed a large part of the 2023 season following wrist and ankle surgery, and was then sidelined for two months by a foot injury.
She pulled out of her Australian Open warm-up event in Auckland with a back niggle and needed an injury timeout for a tight leg muscle when 3-0 down in the second set against Anisimova.
"Every match I can play against these top opponents, I'm loving it," she added.
"It's an opportunity to test my game, see where I'm at," she said.
"I have nothing to lose, I'm just going to swing and give it my best."
Swiatek, who lost her top ranking to defending champion Aryna Sabalenka last season after a one-month doping ban, has a poor record in Melbourne by her lofty standards.
She has only once progressed beyond the fourth round, in 2022, when she lost in the semi-finals.
Swiatek now has Naomi Osaka's former coach Wim Fissette in her corner after hooking up with the Belgian towards the end of last year.
He has installed a hitting partner for Swiatek as she aims to improve her record in Australia, and she said the partnership was working well.
"He's been great," said Swiatek. "I feel like he's really supportive.
"And you know being on the women's tour, I think it's not easy especially when most of the coaches are men. They also need to understand what we go through sometimes.
"I feel like Wim is doing that very well."
PAOLINI SPRINTS INTO THIRD ROUND
Fourth seed Jasmine Paolini shook off some early nerves to sail into the third round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Mexico's Renata Zarazua.
Paolini followed Jannik Sinner onto Melbourne Park's centre court and served notice she could match her fellow Italian's success there last year when he won his maiden Grand Slam title.
The energetic world No. 4 was playing on Rod Laver Arena for the first time and dropped her serve in the opening game.
"I don't know why, but maybe I was nervous, you know, first time playing here and it's an amazing court," Paolini said.
The brief lapse kicked her into gear and from then on it was one-way traffic to set up a last-32 meeting with Ukraine's Elina Svitolina.
Paolini began using her quick footwork to provide a solid base for her precision groundstrokes.
She rattled off four games in a row to lead 4-1 before world number 74 Zarazua was finally able to hold her own serve.
But after an easy hold, another break gave Paolini the set in 34 minutes.
Zarazua, who is playing in only her second Australian Open, struggled to live with Paolini's speed and power.
Paolini piled on the aggression in the second set, pushing Zarazua to all parts of the court as she sped into a 4-1 lead.
But Zarazua wasn't quite finished and her never-say-die attitude enabled her to take advantage of a Paolini lapse in concentration to break back for 4-3.
The Italian gathered herself and created another break point after outlasting Zarazua in a 20-shot rally, letting out a scream as she converted for a decisive 5-3 lead before serving out for the match.
"Renata is a really tough player. The ball is coming back so many times. But I think at the end, I managed to close out the match and I'm really happy about it," said Paolini, after polishing off her opponent in 1hr 16min.
In 2024, Paolini became the first Italian woman to make the last 16 at all four Grand Slams in the Open Era and won the title in Dubai in a breakthrough season that propelled her into the top five.
She also reached maiden major finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and she is clearly in the mood for a first grand slam title in Melbourne.
But she has a difficult draw.
Providing she gets past 28th seed Svitolina and into the second week, Paolini could potentially have 2023 finalist Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek blocking her path to the final.
JABEUR ASTHMA FLARES UP
A bad bout of asthma nearly derailed the comeback of former world number two Ons Jabeur with the Tunisian saying she found it hard to breathe and nearly gave up.
The 30-year-old three-time Grand Slam finalist is aiming to get back to the top after a shoulder injury last year threatened her career.
But she said asthma was now becoming an issue.
Jabeur, ranked 39, needed a medical timeout on her way to a 7-5, 6-3 second-round victory over Colombia's Camila Osorio for treatment and to use an inhaler.
"Very, very tough to breathe. When I was younger, I was diagnosed with asthma," she revealed, adding that she may not have continued if she had lost the first set.
"It is very tough to play. I had to kind of not play long rallies.
"Not the best opponent when you are in this condition, but I apologised at the end of the match, because I really don't want to behave like this on the court."
Jabeur said she doesn't usually talk about her asthma problem.
"We will have to manage, you know, like we always do," she said.
"I think I will have to find a way to feel better the next two days, which I am hoping to do because this started kind of two days or three days ago. I feel like it got worse for some reason.
"I'm really just taking it one minute at a time and see how it's going to go, but definitely I'm doing everything that I can to be ready."
She faces a tough third-round clash against American eighth seed Emma Navarro who came back from the brink to beat China's 108th-ranked Wang Xiyu in three sets.
'I HAD 10 MINUTES'
Eva Lys's bags were packed and her flight booked. But now the German is into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time after making the most of her second chance.
The 23-year-old "lucky loser" defeated France's Varvara Gracheva 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round, falling onto her back on court after sealing victory.
"I don't think I have any words to describe it yet," Lys, who is ranked 128th in the world, said.
It has been a whirlwind few days for Ukraine-born Lys.
She lost in the final round of qualifying in Melbourne last week, her hopes of making the first major of the year seemingly over.
But she hung about on the off-chance that another player would drop out and 13th seed Anna Kalinskaya did just that on Tuesday, suddenly giving Lys another Australian Open life.
She duly defeated home player Kimberly Birrell in straight sets in the first round of the main draw.
"I found out about it 10 minutes before the match so I didn't have time to get nervous," Lys, who lost in the first round at the Australian Open two years ago, said.
A "lucky loser" is a player who loses in qualifying but later gets a ticket into the main draw following another player's withdrawal, usually because of illness or injury.
"I was panicking a little bit because I didn't really prepare my drinks," said Lys, who was born in Kyiv and moved to Germany with her family when she was two years old.
"I didn't have match clothes on so I went to the locker room, got changed straight away, and then they called my name.
"So no warm-up, no anything. Maybe that's the key for the next match."
Lys faces Romania's 82nd-ranked Jaqueline Cristian in the third round.