Australian Open: Iga Swiatek still eager for breakthrough Australian title after knocking out local Maddison Inglis

Iga Swiatek has continued her march towards a career grand slam after ending the fairytale run of home town hero Maddison Inglis in the fourth round of the Australian Open. The Polish world No.2 delivered a 6-0 6-3 victory against the West Australian, who had come through qualifying and was playing in the round of 16 of a major for the first time. Swiatek has reached the semi-final at Melbourne Park twice but has fallen short of her bid to add the Australian Open to her major trophy haul. The 24-year-old won Wimbledon last year, the US Open in 2022 and she owns four French Open titles, winning three in a row between 2022 and 2024. She is looking to make amends for last year’s AO disappointment, falling to eventual champion Madison Keys in three sets despite holding a match point in the deciding set. Ranked 168, Inglis was helped into the fourth round by the injury-enforced withdrawal of her third-round opponent Naomi Osaka. While she was intent on continuing her stellar run, Inglis couldn’t match the ruthless strike-power from Swiatek, who swept through the first set in just 32 minutes. The 28-year-old joined the large crowd at Rod Laver Arena in celebrating when she broke the Polish star to go ahead 1-0 in the second set. Unfortunately the joy was short-lived with Swiatek striking straight back and then breaking Inglis again to take a 3-1 lead. Inglis continued to battle and put up more resistance in the second set and had another break point on Swiatek’s serve. But in the end failed to dent Swiatek’s dominance. “I felt pretty confident from the beginning,” the former world No.1 said. “I felt like the pace of the ball was much different on my last round so I needed to adjust with my legs and really be precise with my footwork and I’m happy that I went for it.” Despite the loss, as the last local woman in the draw, Inglis leaves the Australian Open with a huge rankings surge, set to move up to 113. She will also bank a “life-changing” prize-money cheque of $480,000, while her fiance, Jason Kubler, will play in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles in an all-Australian pairing with Marc Polmans. Swiatek will take on fifth seed Elena Rybakina in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.