Images from Day 5 of the 2024 Australian Open in Melbourne on Thursday.
Swiatek rallies to beat Collins
IMAGE: Iga Swiatek’s run to the 2022 semis is her best showing at the Australian Open. Photographs: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
World number one Iga Swiatek battled back from two breaks down in the final set to beat Danielle Collins 6-4 3-6 6-4 on Thursday and reach the third round of the Australian Open for the fifth successive year.
Collins might be ranked 62nd in the world but has a good record at Melbourne Park and beat Swiatek in the semi-finals two years ago before going on to lose to Ash Barty in the title-decider.
Four-times Grand Slam champion Swiatek has an excellent record against lower-ranked players but really had to dig deep into her reserves to overcome Collins in a dramatic but scrappy three-hour contest on Rod Laver Arena.
The 30-year-old Collins faltered in her serve at key moments in the match and Swiatek found her best tennis late in the decisive set to move onto a third-round clash with Czech Linda Noskova.
“Oh my god, honestly, I was already at the airport,” said Swiatek, whose run to the 2022 semis was her best showing at Melbourne Park.
“I wanted to fight until the end, she played perfectly but it would be hard for anybody to keep that level so I wanted to be ready when mistakes were going to come from the other side.
“I wanted to push then and I did that at the end and I’m really proud of myself because it wasn’t easy.”
Collins drew first blood with a break for 3-1 in the opening set but Swiatek broke straight back to love and the match was locked up at 3-3 when a shower interrupted play for half an hour as the roof was closed.
Swiatek came out firing on the resumption, racing around the court to win four straight games to lock up the first set and go a break up in the second.
That seemed to galvanise Collins and the 30-year-old American ramped up the speed of her groundstrokes to rattle off the next five games and serve for the second set.
“I felt I had the momentum going and she suddenly started playing two times faster,” Swiatek recalled.
“I had no idea how to react to that for a couple of games but I just came back and thought the only thing I can focus on is myself.”
Five double faults helped Swiatek save four set-points and the Pole fought off another on her own serve before Collins finally got over the line at the sixth attempt to level up the contest after more than two hours on court.
Collins was by no means done yet and two breaks gave her a 4-1 lead in the decider but that was as good as it got for the American, who raced straight off court at the end knowing she had blown a big chance of an upset.
Swiatek saw two match points saved in the final game but finally sealed the deal when she seized on a Collins dropshot and sent a sizzling backhand down the line.
Zverev battles past qualifier Klein
IMAGE: Alexander Zverev celebrates winning his second round match against Lukas Klein. Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters
Sixth seed Alexander Zverev survived an almighty scare at the Australian Open on Thursday as the former semi-finalist dug deep to beat Slovakian qualifier Lukas Klein 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(7) and move into the third round.
Rain forced the contest to be completed under the roof on John Cain Arena and Zverev found himself in big trouble as world number 163 Klein turned up the pressure after losing the opening set to take the next two.
The 25-year-old Slovak, whose only previous Grand Slam main draw appearance was at Wimbledon in 2022, inched towards his first career top-10 win but squandered the chance to break at 4-4 in the fourth set.
Zverev levelled the contest as Klein frittered away a 3-1 lead in the tie-break and the 26-year-old German swapped breaks with his opponent early in the decider before holding his nerve in a tie-break to prevail.
