Iga Swiatek v Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff v Jelena Ostapenko, match results, video, highlights
Underdogs have continued to wreak havoc at the Australian Open on Sunday, Elena Rybakina and Jelena Ostapenko ousting more fancied opponents at Melbourne Park.
The Kazakhstani and Latvian were responsible for eliminating the first and seventh seeds in the women’s singles draw, ending the campaigns of arguably the two biggest names, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff, in the fourth round.
It means only three of the top 10 women’s seeds remain alive in the tournament: Jessica Pegula, Caroline Garcia and Aryna Sabalenka.
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No.22 seed Rybakina defeated Swiatek 6-4, 6-4, before 17th seed Ostapenko toppled Gauff 7-5, 6-3.
The women’s draw had already lost Ons Jabeur, Maria Sakkari, Daria Kasatkina, Veronika Kudermetova and Madison Keys.
Shock results have also rocked the men’s singles draw, with just five of the top 10 seeds still contesting the first grand slam of the year.
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Rafael Nadal, Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz have all been dumped from the tournament.
It’s the first time in the open era that the top two seeds in the men’s and women’s singles draws have been knocked out prior to the quarter-finals.
Swiatek, a two-time Roland-Garros champion and the reigning US Open winner, is yet to compete in an Australian Open final.
The star from Poland, who carved out 37 wins in succession in 2022, admits she has work to do on her mental game as she attempts to rediscover her dominance.
“Well, for sure past two weeks have been pretty hard for me,” said Swiatek, who inherited the No.1 ranking when Ash Barty retired in March last year.
“So I felt today that I don’t have that much to, like, take from myself to fight even more.
“So I really want to … I felt like I took a step back in terms of how I approach these tournaments, and I maybe wanted it a little bit too hard.
“So I’m going to try to chill out a little bit more. That’s all.”
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When Gauff was asked about Swiatek and herself both tumbling from the tournament on Sunday, the 18-year-old said the results didn’t “surprise” her.
“I mean, Iga lost to Elena, who just won Wimbledon,” Gauff said.
“I knew that match would go either way. I feel like Jelena … she’s somebody that, you know, can play really good, and sometimes there’s some things that you just can’t do.
“I think today she played really well.
“I think I was looking at the stats, and for the most part I was doing pretty good at the stats, but I mean, she returned really well, so it kind of, I guess, messed up my rhythm a little bit.
“You know, she hit a lot of winners, which not a lot of people can do on me.
“So I think that she did a great job.”
Rybakina and Ostapenko will square off in a quarter-final on Tuesday.
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Australian Open 2023 in pictures: ‘Frustrated’ star Coco Gauff breaks down after shock loss
