Australian Open: Iga Swiatek, Madison Keys set up semifinal showdown

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer

MELBOURNE, Australia — Iga Swiatek’s latest lopsided win at the Australian Open came via a 6-1, 6-2 score in the quarterfinals against No. 8 seed Emma Navarro on Wednesday (Tuesday night PT).

The second-seeded Swiatek not only has not dropped a set so far in the tournament, but also has lost a grand total of only 14 games as she seeks her first title at Melbourne Park and sixth Grand Slam trophy overall. The last woman to make it to the Australian Open semifinals having ceded fewer than 15 games was Maria Sharapova back in 2013.

“I’m really happy with the tournament overall,” said Swiatek, who will face 19th-seeded American Madison Keys on Thursday night for a berth in the final. “Being in the semis is great. I’ll push for more.”

Swiatek benefited from what appeared to be a missed double-bounce on a point she won in the second set, but Navarro did not immediately ask for a video review. Either way, Swiatek’s dominance was pretty clear, even if she was modest about things afterward.

“Well, I think it was much more tougher than the score says,” said Swiatek, a 23-year-old from Poland. “Emma’s a fighter … and I wanted to stay focused and keep my intensity.”

The other women’s semifinal is top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, against her good friend, 11th-seeded Paula Badosa.

Keys, whose best showing at a major was getting to the title match at the 2017 U.S. Open, was a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 winner against Elina Svitolina and is into her third semifinal in Australia.

“Madison is a great player and experienced, so you never know,” said Swiatek, who is 4-1 against the 29-year-old Keys. “I’ll be just focused on myself.”

Using a new racket this season, Keys is on a 10-match winning streak, including a title at a hard-court tune-up event in Adelaide. Her run to the semifinals in Melbourne includes victories over two past runners-up at the Australian Open, Danielle Collins and Elina Rybakina.

Keys’ past losses in the semifinals in Melbourne came against eventual champions Serena Williams in 2015 and Ash Barty in 2022.

“I think I play a little bit smarter for sure … probably a little bit less fearless,” Keys said.

Svitolina, a three-time Slam semifinalist, was in control during the first set. But Keys made some tactical adjustments, including looking for more opportunities to get to the net. She won 23 of the 26 points when she moved forward and ended up with a total of 49 winners, 23 on her powerful forehand side.

The one difficulty Keys had was getting going in her return games. But she finally converted her seventh break chance to lead 4-2 in the second set.

“Iga is tough to beat, because she has a lot of spin, kind of naturally, on both sides. She’s a good server. She’s a good returner. She moves incredibly well,” Keys said, looking ahead to Thursday. “The biggest thing that makes her so difficult to beat is, because she moves so well, if you miss your spot just slightly, she has enough time to recover, and then the point goes back to neutral.”

DOUBLE-BOUNCE

The score of Swiatek’s match with Navarro was still 2-all in the second set when the point drawing a lot of attention happened.

“I don’t feel like it was a huge momentum swing. Obviously the score says otherwise,” Navarro said.

“I was definitely able to reset. I was kind of a little bit frustrated on the changeover,” she added. “Maybe it bled into one point, and then I told myself: ‘It’s time to move on, it’s in the past, can’t linger on it.’”

It was a 13-stroke point, and the 10th was a drop shot by Navarro that landed close to the net. Swiatek raced forward, nearly doing the splits and dragging her right knee as she got to the ball. Her response got over the net, and she eventually put away a backhand after Navarro replied. That gave Swiatek a 3-2 lead; the match went on another 25 minutes, and Navarro didn’t take another game.

A replay shown afterward showed Swiatek did not get to the ball before the double bounce. A chair umpire can be asked to review something like that, although only if the player stops during the point – which Navarro didn’t do in the heat of the moment, instead trying to prolong the exchange.

When she saw a replay on the video board at Rod Laver Arena during the ensuing changeover, Navarro asked official Eva Asderaki-Moore, “Did you see that?”

“I asked her after the point if I could see a replay,” Navarro said, “and she said I played it, so I couldn’t see it.”

Navarro thinks that rule should be changed so final rulings can be made with the benefit of video review.

The athletes, she said, “should be allowed to see after the point, even if you play. It happened so fast. You hit the shot, and she hits it back, and you’re just, like, ‘Oh, I guess I’m playing.’ In the back of your head, you’re, like, ‘OK, maybe I can still win the point even though it wasn’t called.’ It’s going to be a downer if I stop the point and it turns out it wasn’t a double bounce. It’s tough.”

Navarro said she wasn’t sure whether Swiatek realized the ball bounced twice.

Swiatek was asked about it at her news conference – and said she didn’t know.

“I didn’t see the replay after this point, because after the point, I didn’t look up for the screens because I wanted to stay focused and didn’t want this point to stay in my head for longer period of time,” Swiatek said.

“I wasn’t sure if it was a double bounce or I hit it with my frame,” Swiatek said. “It was hard to say because I was full sprinting.”

RYBAKINA ENDS SHORT STINT WITH IVANISEVIC

Goran Ivanisevic’s brief stint as the coach for 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina is over now that she is out of the Australian Open.

Ivanisevic, a Wimbledon winner himself in 2001, posted a brief statement on social media Tuesday, saying: “After our trial period that finished with Australian Open, I wish Elena and her team best of luck moving forward.”

The sixth-seeded Rybakina, a runner-up in Australia two years ago, was eliminated by Keys in the fourth round on Monday.

Rybakina’s coaching situation is complicated: She announced right before last year’s U.S. Open that she no longer was working with her long-time coach, Stefano Vukov, and hired Ivanisevic ahead of this season.

Then, just before the Australian Open, Rybakina said Vukov would be rejoining her team – and the WTA Tour said Vukov was provisionally suspended, “pending an independent investigation into a potential breach of the WTA code of conduct.”

Ivanisevic coached Novak Djokovic to a dozen Grand Slam titles together before they split in March 2024.

AP sports writer John Pye in Brisbane, Australia, contributed to this story.