MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- World No. 1 and top seed Iga Swiatek was knocked out on Saturday in the Australian Open, with her 18-match winning streak ended by world No. 50 Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic.
In the third round match held at Rod Laver Arena, 19-year-old Noskova booked her career-first berth in the fourth round at any Grand Slam with a stunning 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 triumph over the four-time Grand Slam champion
After dropping the first set to the 22-year-old Pole, Noskova managed to break Swiatek with four straight points in the eighth game during the second set before emerging victorious at 6-3.
The decisive third set saw the two players trade breaks early but the young Czech won another break point in the seventh game.
"I'm just exhausted mentally and physically, but I think it was an unbelievable match for me. Playing on such a court for the first time, playing with Iga for a second time, I really wanted to win this, so I'm just glad that I did it," Noskova said at the media conference.
This also marked the first time that Swiatek has not made it through to the last 16 since 2020.
"I felt like I had everything under control until she broke me in the second set. I had a couple of chances to break her in the second set and I didn't use them. So that's a shame. But when she broke me, she was kind of proactive. I wanted to do that as well later in the next games. I was rushing it. I just wasn't playing kind of with my intuition and naturally," said Swiatek.
"I lost but I'm going to have more tournaments. I remember just last year getting back to work. I could reset and just focus on next tournaments. So I'm going to do the same this year," she added. ■