Although Iga Swiatek played with authority in the first and third sets against Anna Kalinskaya, she lost the plot in the second at the Australian Open on Saturday, but it was enough to send her to the Last 16, where she will next meet surprise Australian favorite, qualifier Maddison Ingles, who advanced when her opponent, two-time champion Naomi Osaka, pulled herself out of contention ahead of their third-round match.
I had to make the difficult decision to withdraw to address something my body needed attention after my last race. I was so excited to keep going and this run meant the most to me, so having to stop here breaks my heart, but I can’t risk doing any more damage just so I can get back on the field. Thank you for all the love and support… I’m so grateful that everyone hugged me like that. Naomi Osaka
Also through to the 4th round is Elena Rybakina, the tournament’s dark horse after the 5th seed ended the hopes of teenager Tereza Valentova, the former Wimbledon champion who took on No. 21 seed Elise Mertens on Monday, edging past 19-year-old qualifier Nikola Bartunkova.
In a battle to become the third-youngest woman to complete a Grand Slam career behind Serena Williams and Stefanie Graf, Swiatek dropped her first set of the tournament but kept her title hopes alive with a rollercoaster, 6-1 1-6 6-1 victory over Kalinskaya, the Russian 31st seed, on Saturday evening at Margaret Court Arena, which lasted an hour and 44 minutes but prevailed.
“It’s no surprise to me because I know Anna can play great tennis,” said the six-time Major champion. “She’s risking a lot, so at the same time she could even go and play, so I just wanted to be there… to still be proactive and put pressure on her.
“I wanted to focus on myself regardless of what was happening on the other side of the net, and I kept going because momentum can change.”
The momentum swung wildly between the two throughout the match, and in each set the player who took the early lead ran away with it.
Under closed roof, a laser-focused Swiatek consolidated an early break, leaving just two points off serve as she raced to a 3-0 lead.
The 24-year-old comfortably controlled rallies from the baseline and converted opportunities to charge the net. He earned a second break and a 5-1 lead when Kalinskaya fired a forehand wide.
Although the AO 2024 quarter-finalist saved a set point with a scorching forehand winner, she promptly hit a backhand return into the net to hand Swiatek the set.
Swiatek was virtually flawless on serve in the opener, winning 17 of 20 points behind her serve, while Kalinskaya dropped her opening service game from set point with a slew of backhand errors, setting the tone for a 24-minute set against her.
After receiving treatment on her back during a medical timeout between sets, Kalinskaya began hitting the ball with greater freedom and accuracy in the second.
The 31st seed, who upset Swiatek in the first meeting of their careers in 2024, began to abandon her powerful, flat groundstrokes that have plagued her Polish opponent in the past.
Fearlessly hitting a pair of winners, Kalinskaya earned her first break points of the match on Swiatek’s serve, converting when the world No. 2 sent an on-the-run forehand over the baseline.
After finding just three winners in the opener, the Russian fired off ten in the next set, in which the key game was her 4-1 lead.
Swiatek had already retreated once and held on to 3 points to do so again, but Kalinskaya held firm and saved them all with non-refundable serves.
The 24-year-old Pole, who made several wild, unforced errors in the set, regained her intensity in the decider, where she didn’t face a game point as she jumped to a 5-0 lead, and although Kalinskaya did her best to close it out in a 4-deuce final game, Swiatek staked a forehand winner to convert her second match point, and couldn’t help smiling when Kalinskaya asked for a video replay showing the confirmation confirmed. Pool precision.
“I just wanted to be there when I have the chance, when I have a slower ball, to still be proactive and put pressure on her,” Swiatek added. “I didn’t feel like I played worse in the second set, I felt like she just started to play in all the balls that went out in the first set.”
In the fourth round, Swiatek will face Australian Maddison Inglis, the final qualifier, who advanced via a walkover after Osaka’s withdrawal.
The No. 2 seed, who spent just over 5 hours on the court in Melbourne, lost just 4 games to the world No. 168 in their only previous meeting in 2021, while the Aussie had clocked over 13 hours en route to her first-ever Grand Slam 4th round.
‘She did [had] A great run,” said the Pole from Inglis. “I have to go for it.”
Swiatek has advanced to the second week of a major for the 21st time in 28 major draws and for the 6th time in 8 Australian Open appearances.
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Four-time Grand Slam and two-time Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka withdrew from the 2026 Australian Open due to a left abdominal injury, according to a statement released by Tennis Australia on social media.
“It’s an injury I’ve had a few times and I thought I could get through it,” Osaka said in the statement. “I played my last game with some pain, and I thought if I gave myself a break for today’s game I might be able to handle it, but I warmed up and it got a lot worse.
“I definitely need to do more tests, and obviously I think when I came back from pregnancy my body had changed quite a bit. So this is something I have to be very careful about.”
In her recent match against Sorana Cirstea in the second round, Osaka defeated the veteran in 3 sets, 6-3 4-6 6-2.
After Cirstea forced a third set, Osaka briefly left the court and then took a medical timeout at 2-1 in the third set.
“It’s a recurring thing,” Osaka said about the timeout on Thursday after the match. “If you look at my medical history, I think you might be able to do a little guessing game.”
At the 2025 Australian Open, Osaka retired in her third round match against Belinda Bencic due to an abdominal injury, and in Auckland, a few weeks prior to the 2025 ASB Classic, she retired in the final against Clara Tauson after winning the first set due to the same problem.
“I had to make the difficult decision to withdraw to address something my body needs attention after my last match,” the 28-year-old Japanese later wrote on her Instagram Story.
“I was so excited to keep going and this run meant the most to me, so it breaks my heart to have to stop here, but I can’t risk doing more damage just so I can get back on the field.
“Thank you for all the love and support…I’m so grateful that everyone hugged me so much.
“And I thank my entire team for always having my back and the tournament organizers for their kindness.”
Fifth seed Elena Rybakina dropped serve in both sets but still defeated 18-year-old Tereza Valentova to reach the second week of the Australian Open for the third time in her career
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Late on Day 7, Elena Rybakina put in another strong performance, safely reaching the Last 16 with a straight-sets victory against 18-year-old Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic, 6-2 6-3, in the third round.
Facing Rybakina for the second time, ranked 54th, Valentova broke the fifth-seeded Kazakh in the very first game of the match, who then stormed back emphatically with three breaks of her own to clinch the opener.
The second saw something similar, as the Czech claimed an early break to go 2-1 up, but her lead was again short-lived after Rybakina won five of the next six games to overturn the deficit and get the job done in straight sets in an hour and 22 minutes.
During the match, Rybakina fired 4 aces, hit 19 winners, converted 5 of her 9 break point chances and saved 7 of the 9 break points she faced.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion is now on a 2-0 defeat to Valentova, having also defeated the 18-year-old at the US Open last year.
Before dismissing Valentova, the fifth seed also saw off Kaja Juvan and Varvara Gracheva in straight sets, and the 26-year-old Kazakh has advanced to the second week of the Australian Open for the third time in her career.
No. 21 seed Elise Mertens, who has yet to drop a set in Melbourne. defeated 18-year-old Nikola Bartunkova in 76 minutes and will meet Elena Rybakina on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals
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For a place in the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park, Rybakina will face No. 21 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium, against whom she has a 6-1 advantage in their head-to-head matches.
Mertens arrived in the eighth finals without losing a single set in Melbourne.
The 2018 AO semi-finalist confirmed her recent strong form by beating Nikola Bartunkova, the surprise package who had upset Daria Kasatkina and Belinda Bencic in her first two rounds.
The 30-year-old Mertens defeated the Czech teenager 6-0 6-4 in an hour and 16 minutes to reach the AO Last 16 for the fifth time in her career, after appearances in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Aussie qualifier Maddison advanced to face Iga Swiatek in the Last 16 after Naomi Osaka withdrew from the Australian Open due to injury
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