Elena Rybakina derailed Iga Swiatek’s hopes of a Grand Slam career at the Australian Open on Wednesday afternoon when she upset the Pole 7-5 6-1 after an hour and 35 minutes of play.
I always said: win and play [in] a Slam is tough… Hopefully with the experience and with another year of playing and practicing, the next tournament, the next Australian Open, I can go into the next tournament, the next Australian Open, with some more skills, or more variety, or the things I couldn’t fully work on. Maybe I’ll have it next year. Iga Swaatek
The Russian-born Kazakh, who has flown under the radar during the draw, dominantly undermined the world number 2’s ambitions in the quarter-final, sending an ominous signal to the remaining title contenders.
The fifth seed used her aggressive play to bully the former world No. 1 into submission, ending the Pole’s 2026 career Grand Slam bid.
Undefeated at last year’s WTA Finals, this was Rybakina’s eighth consecutive Top 10 win, something only two other women, Ash Barty and Swiatek herself, have achieved since 2020.
“We know each other pretty well, and I just tried to stay aggressive,” Rybakina said after the demolition. “I feel like in the first set the first serve wasn’t really working for either of us, so we tried to intervene on the second serve, put pressure on each other, and I think in the second I just started playing more freely and serving better. I’m just really happy with the win.”
Known as a big-match player, Rybakina is unplayable at best, and the Kazakh is building some serious steam here in Melbourne, having won 18 of her last 19 matches at tour level dating back to October last year, the first woman to do so since Swiatek did it between Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
“The last few tournaments I have played I have gained some confidence during tough matches and this is of course something I am trying to convey this year,” Rybakina told the media after her victory. “I try to stay aggressive when I get the chance – to step in, maybe take a little risk. Even today a few shots were very close to the line, or on the line.”
The 26-year-old is the only active player to have defeated Swiatek more than once at Grand Slam level, and of the four matches she has played against the Top 2 players at the Majors, she has won three, beating Swiatek twice and Ons Jabeur once.
This marks a revival for the world number 5, who failed to reach the quarter-finals at any of the Majors last season for the first time since 2020.
Rybakina’s big serve has played a key role in her recent form; her 516 aces led the WTA tour last year, which was an astonishing 143 more than second-seeded Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic.
She has also fired the most aces in the women’s singles draw at Melbourne Park so far, with 35.
© Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Early breaks were traded as both Rybakina and Swiatek needed time to settle into their twelfth career meeting, with the 24-year-old Pole having claimed six.
However, Rybakina had prevailed in their most recent meeting at the WTA Finals, winning their only previous AO showdown, which came in the fourth round on route to her second major final three years ago.
In her fifth consecutive tour-level quarter-final, Rybakina tried to be more aggressive with her second serve, which was easier said than done against a six-time Grand Slam champion, one of the best restarters in the match, but after taking the lead 6-5 after successive aces and a blistering backhand winner, the Kazakh stepped up the game.
After a shaky wide-handed forehand gave Rybakina a set point, Swiatek asserted himself with a ferociously struck forehand winner, but a backhand miss 2 points later surrendered the set after an hour.
Iga Swiatek kept things close in the first set against Elena Rybakina, but faded in the second and had to deal with the fifth seed’s tricky serve
© Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
With the tense opening in the bag, Rybakina looked more serene than ever, and after being told to ‘relax the shoulders’ at her box, she hit back-to-back groundstroke winners before the early break.
Despite a scare on serve at 3-1, she tightened her grip on the match and rolled through the final three matches.
An 11th ace, one of her 26 match winners, sealed her 4th Grand Slam semi-final berth and a clash against 4th seed Amanda Anisimova or 6th seed Jessica Pegula, whose quarter-final followed.
After hitting just 49% of first serves in this match, it nonetheless sent a message to the rest of the court that her best could be coming.
“Really happy with the last two games. It’s a bit challenging with the sun, but I’ll find a way,” she said. “For now the service is really helping, so hopefully I can continue like this.”
The only other time Rybakina won an Australian Open quarterfinal was when she faced Aryna Sabalenka in one of the highest quality Grand Slam finals of the modern era.
That streak included consecutive victories over Danielle Collins, Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko and Victoria Azarenka.
“I don’t remember exactly how I started in 2023, the tournament,” Rybakina said. “I think they were tougher rounds score-wise, but I feel like maybe I didn’t start the matches as well this time, in terms of feeling the shots and all that stuff, but I still managed to win in straight sets.
“Physically I feel good now. It is difficult to compare, but especially in this tournament I played a little better every match.”
Elena Rybakina has leveled the head-to-head with Iga Swiatek at 6 apiece, and has yet to drop a set heading into the AO semifinals, where she will meet sixth seed Jessica Pegula on Thursday.
© David Gray/AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, Swiatek, the youngest player to reach six consecutive major quarter-finals since Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2003, knew she had to take the initiative early in the points to keep the ball out of the big swinging Kazakh’s reach. But knowing and doing are different things.
The 24-year-old leaves Melbourne with a plan to make significant adjustments to her game to put her in a better position to win the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup when she arrives Down Under next year.
“I know what I need to improve,” she said after the loss to Rybakina, who has now won exactly half of their twelve battles. “I’m not happy with the results. It was a high-intensity match.”
“The first set was exciting, [a] a few points made the difference. In the second set she improved her serve, she went for the shots and it became much more difficult.
“I wanted to be aggressive on the second serve, so sometimes you make mistakes, but if you want to break, you have to make it, at a moment like that.”
Against the fifth seed, Swiatek made 55% of first serves and hit 10 winners to Rybakina’s 26, while converting only 1 of her 4 break point chances and winning 27% of points on her return, compared to the 47% won by the Kazakh.
“My serve wasn’t the best, so it was hard to do that, to keep the score even in the second set,” the Pole admitted. “It’s never been so flawless for me to play these courses, because they’re fast, you know? I’ll try it next time anyway.”
Iga Swiatek leaves Melbourne with plans to improve in the coming year ahead of her next attempt at a career Grand Slam Down Under
© William West/AFP via Getty Images
When asked to compare her AO 2026 campaign to her run to the AO 2025 semifinals, where she had a match point against eventual title winner Madison Keys, Swiatek paused.
“Last year I felt like I played a little bit better,” she said. “If you want to win for sure, it would be nice to play even better, but as I always said, win and play [in] a Slam is tough.”
The Pole added that the 2025 AO was also different because she entered the season having adjusted her game with input from her new coach, Wim Fissette.
“We changed some things, which was a bit of a ‘Eureka’ moment for me,” said Swiatek, who earned her first Wimbledon crown less than six months later. “This year we didn’t manage to fully complete the things we wanted to change in preseason, so this year I felt like I had to work on it during the tournament as well, and that’s maybe why I felt like I was playing, like, [a] little bit worse.
“[It has] It was quite difficult for me to have a smooth process. I see Carlos [Alcaraz]for example, by changing its service every year. For me, it only takes one little thing [a] much longer time.”
In pre-season she made adjustments to her serve, but during her matches at Melbourne Park she found herself returning to old habits.
“I’m definitely going to focus on that [is] There are some things I can change to play better, and I will try to do that in the coming weeks and months.”
The world number 2, who has historically competed throughout the calendar year, plans to take at least one break to nail down those technical changes.
“I think it’s necessary if you want to improve your game,” Swiatek added. “I don’t think it’s possible to do that in the short period we have between tournaments. I think we will definitely skip some tournaments.” [WTA] 1000 tournaments.”
Looking ahead to AO 2027, Swiatek remained optimistic about its prospects.
“Hopefully with the experience and another year of playing and practicing, the next tournament, the next Australian Open, I can start with a little more skill, or more variety, or the things that I couldn’t fully work on,” the 24-year-old said. “Maybe I’ll have it next year.”
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