(Rome) Fast in her first two rounds, world No.1 Iga Swiatek was much more laborious on Tuesday to beat Croatian Dona Vekic (24e) 6-3, 6-4, and thus qualify for the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 in Rome.
“I’m happy to be out of it,” admitted the Pole. She will face the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (6e), to whom she lost in their two confrontations this year, in 1/8are finals at the Australian Open then in the semis at Indian Wells, to try to climb into the last four of the Roman tournament of which she is double defending champion.
Swiatek had been imperial in her first two games against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6-0, 6-0) then Lesia Tsurenko (6-2, 6-0). She was less brilliant against Vekic, committing 23 unforced errors (against 26 for the Croatian) for 19 winning shots (against 14), but strong enough to win.
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22 January at Australian Open 2026 1/32 final matches were played in the lower group of men’s singles.
Number two in the ATP world rankings and current champion Jannik the Sinner He defeated James Duckworth. He will then compete with Italian player Eliot Spizzirri.
Distinguished Novak Djokovic He coped with Francesco Maestrelli without any problems. Novak’s next opponent will be Botik van de Zandshulp.
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Old Marin Cilic and Stan Wawrinka also advanced to the third round by knocking out Denis Shapovalov and Arthur Hea respectively.
Hubert Hurkacz’s loss to Ethan Quinn was quite unexpected and came in three sets.
Among Thursday’s top 10 players, Lorenzo Musetti (beat Lorenzo Sonego), Ben Shelton (beat Dane Sweeney) and Taylor Fritz (beat Vit Koprzyva) won their second-round matches on Thursday.
On the 21st of the month, the 1/32 upper group final took place in Melbourne, and as a result, the star Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz took one step forward.
Australian Open 2026. 1/16 last pair
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Carlos Alcaraz [1] – Corentin Moutet [32] Tommy Paul [19] – Alejandro Davidovic Fokina [14]
Alexander Bublik [10] – Thomas Martin Etcheverry Francis Tiafoe [29] – Alex de Minaur [6]
Alexander Zverev [3] – Cameron Norrie [26] Francisco Cherundolo [18] – Andrey Rublev [13]
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Wawrinka, who is in the final season of his career, won in 4 hours and 33 minutes in a five-set thriller against Arthur Gea (France, ATP 198) in the second round of the Aus Open. This fight is the longest fight in slam so far.
This match marked the 49th five-setter match of Stan’s career in Grand Slam tournaments; He surpassed Roger Federer (48) and became the sole owner of the Open Era record in this indicator.
Since the introduction of the 128-player draw across the four Grand Slams in 1987, Wawrinka became the oldest player to achieve multiple wins at a single major, at 40 years and 296 days.
Stan started AO-2026 with a victory over Laszlo Gyore. His next opponent will be world number 9 Taylor Fritz.
Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final
Arthur Hea (France) [Q] – Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) [WC] – 6:4, 3:6, 6:3, 5:7, 6:7 (3:10)
Besides Cilic and Wawrinka, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic from Serbia also qualified for the 1/16 final at the Aus Open on January 22. After the end of the match day, Novak published a post in his story with the match result and Marin and Stan’s results and signed:
“There is no coup without the old man” translated from Serbian means: “There is no coup without the old man.”
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Bartunkova and Bencic played each other for the first time.
Belinda lost her first match of 2026. She started the season in the United Cup, where she defeated Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini, among others.
19-year-old Nicola started the Aus Open with the qualifiers. In the first round of the main draw, Bartunkova will compete with Elise Merets after eliminating Daria Kasatkina.
For the first time in her career, Bartunkova beat a tennis player in the top 10 of the WTA rankings. This was also the first defeat of a tennis player ranked in the top 10 at the Australian Open.
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.