2023 Australian Open: ‘Pressured’ world number 1 Iga Swiatek crashes out in fourth round to Elena Rybakina

World number one Iga Swiatek suffered a shock defeat at the hands of last year’s Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina (6-4, 6-4) in the fourth round of the ongoing 2023 Australia Open on Sunday. After getting a code violation by the chair umpire for taking longer between warming up and starting the match, the Polish star lost the first game despite being up 40-0. She, however, did make a return in the game leveling 2-2 at one stage, Kazakhstan’s Rybakina’s power proved way too much for her as she won the first set 6-4.

Come the second set, Swiatek was up 3-0, giving hopes to her fans inside the Rod Laver arena that the game is not over yet. That didn’t last long as Rybakina made a stunning comeback, making it 3-3. She continued building pressure on Swiatek, who didn’t have answers to Rybakina’s shots on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Rybakina converted her third break point to make it 5-4, and it was about time before she completed the formalities and won the match in straight sets to reach the quarters – where she will face the winner of the match between Jelena Ostapenko and Coco Gauff.

Not looking in the best of touches on Sunday, the world number one said she felt the pressure during the game and had this feeling of not wanting to lose instead of going all out for the win. As quoted by the Reuters, Swiatek after the match said,

“I felt today that I don’t have that much to take from myself to fight even more. I felt I took a step back in terms of how I approach these tournaments and I maybe wanted it a little bit too hard,” the world number one told the reporters.

“So, I’m going to try to chill out a bit more. That’s all. I felt the pressure and I felt that I don’t want to lose instead of I want to win. So that’s a base of what I should focus on in next couple of weeks,” she said.

Adding that she would learn from her experience, Swiatek said this exit could actually motivate her to do better going forward.

“Usually if my whole experience at the tournament was tougher and then it comes to an end, I’m able to not focus about the fact that I lost the match but about the overall performance and what’s going on with me,” said Swiatek.

“So, this time, I think it’s going to be motivating for me and I’m sure I’m going to play next tournaments with something to focus on, something to work on, and I’m going to go forward,” she concluded.