After defeating Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova with ease on Thursday, Iga Swiatek guaranteed herself a place in the third round of the Australian Open and an intriguing matchup with Emma Raducanu.

After defeating Rebecca 6-0, 6-2 in the second round, Swiatak has now won 40 of her previous 40 matches in the first two rounds of Grand Slam competitions. Only Aryna Sabalenka, the reigning Australian Open winner, has come close with nine 6-0 sets at a Grand Slam tournament since 2020, including her first set, which was a clean sweep.

Swiatek has had an impressive run in Melbourne after leaving Poland to compete in the physically demanding United Cup finals. She began the match by defeating doubles No. 1 Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 6-4. She defeated Rebecca on Thursday in only one hour, striking 16 winners and avoiding any break points. Twenty of the twenty-six rallies that lasted more than five shots were won by her.

Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open Champion and Swiatek’s opponent, defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-5, overcoming a two-set deficit to go to round three.

Since winning all three of their meetings so far—including the one in Stuttgart last year, which Swiatek won 7-6(2), 6-3—Swiatek has an unblemished record against the world number 61.

“Everyone’s story is different (about Emma’s injuries that affected her career), and everybody struggles with different stuff, but it does not matter,” Swiatek remarked after her match, as reported by the WTA’s official website. Regardless of who performs better, the winner will be declared when we take the court. I’ll simply concentrate on tennis.””We definitely have distinct tales, but I won’t give too much thought before the game. “I’ll just prepare based on her current style of play,” she said.

Three women have the opportunity to exit the event with the top spot: Swiatek, Sabalenka, and number three, Coco Gauff. Swiatek wants to reclaim her number one WTA ranking from Sabalenka.

“Being number one at the beginning of the year put a lot of pressure on me, but I don’t believe I gave it much thought last year overall. Last year, I also came to the realization that I don’t always have complete control over my ranking. I now just concentrate on tennis. I’m certain I’ll return to the top if I play well. Aryna is going to be the best if I don’t and she performs better. “I believe it is simply more prudent to concentrate on tennis, and the ranking will follow,” she said.

Additionally, Gauff defeated Jodie Burrage 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the third round and extend her winning run to nine games. To defeat the world number 173, Gauff had to overcome a 3-5 disadvantage in the second set.

“She was serving really well, so I was just trying to manage that, honestly,” Gauff had said in a post-match interview. I began on defense on every first-serve point. I was just trying to be aggressive when I could because she really upped her game in the middle of the second set.”

Elena Rybankina, another player in the top 10, defeated Iva Jovic, a 17-year-old US wildcard, 6-0, 6-3, to go to the third round. The 32nd-seeded Dayana Yastremska will be her next opponent in their maiden professional encounter.