MELBOURNE, Australia, January 22, 2025 – Iga Swiatek dropped just three games as she breezed past Emma Navarro to reach the Australian Open semi-finals and continue her bid for a maiden Melbourne title.
Five-time major winner Swiatek was ruthless in a 6-1 6-2 victory over eighth seed Navarro.
Swiatek has dropped just 14 games at Melbourne Park this year – and seven of those came in her first-round match.
The Pole will face Madison Keys in the last four after the American came from a set down to beat Elina Svitolina.
Keys will need to be at her big-hitting best to beat Swiatek, who was dominant against the highly rated Navarro.
Swiatek broke to love in the match’s first service game and wrapped up the opening set inside 36 minutes.
However, there was controversy at 2-2 in the second set when the umpire did not spot a double bounce at a crucial moment.
The ball bounced twice before Swiatek, with the advantage on her serve, flicked over a winner, but umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore missed it.
Navarro protested but was unable to use the video technology review – which would have shown a replay of the footage – because she had carried on playing the point, instead of stopping it.
Swiatek subsequently broke in the next game and ran away with the match to match her best result at Melbourne Park.
Swiatek’s superiority – the stats
Swiatek’s dominance on clay is no secret, with the Pole having won four of the past five French Open titles.
But she has struggled on the fast Melbourne hard courts, having only gone past the fourth round once before this year.
Under new coach Wim Fissette, Swiatek has been ruthless.
Only three players in the Open era have dropped fewer games than Swiatek’s 14 on their way to the Melbourne last four.
She has not dropped a single game on serve in her past four matches, and none of her matches so far have lasted over 90 minutes.
Should Swiatek reach the final – and top seed Sabalenka lose her semi-final on Thursday – the 23-year-old would regain the world number one ranking.
If both players advanced to a mouth-watering championship match then Sabalenka would need to win the title for a third straight year to stay top of the rankings.
Keys keeps up winning streak
Earlier, Keys continued her own fine form with a 3-6 6-3 6-4 win over Svitolina.
Keys is on a 10-match winning streak and won the Adelaide Open title a fortnight ago.
The 29-year-old is hoping to reach her second Grand Slam final, having lost to close friend Sloane Stephens at the 2017 US Open.
She was broken late by Svitolina in a tight first set and came through a tricky first service game in the second before growing into the match.
Keys claimed crucial breaks midway through both sets to see off the Ukrainian and reach a third Australian Open semi-final.
Swiatek leads the head-to-head between the pair 4-1 – but Keys did win their last hard-court meeting in Cincinnati in 2022.
“Madison is a great player and really experienced, so you never know,” Swiatek said.
“The match that I lost, she kind of killed me, so I think it can be tricky.”
