Moldovan-born Cristina Bucsa was on the receiving end of a humbling 55-minute defeat by world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the third round of the Australian Open. The three-time major champion is the over-riding favourite to win the title this month with a number of top seeds dropping out of the women’s draw.
Heading into her third-round match, Swiatek had comfortably beaten Jule Niemeier and Maria Camila Osorio Serrano in straight sets. She faced a potential banana skin against qualifer Bucsa, who picked up an impressive win over Bianca Andreescu in the last round.
But Swiatek wasted little time taking full control of the third-round tie, racing to a 3-0 lead inside just seven minutes. The No 1 seed then wrapped up her first bagel of the tournament, breaking her opponent three times, in just 23 minutes.
Bucsa threatened a mini fightback at the start of the second, but Swiatek quickly got back on track and looked on course to race to victory with a double bagel. But the 25-year-old was finally able to get on the scoreboard in the sixth game of the second set, holding her serve for the first time in the match.
That only delayed the inevitable as Swiatek went on to win the tie in the very next game and finish the match in just 55 minutes. Bucsa picked up just 19 points in the entire match as Swiatek comfortably booked her spot in the fourth round.
The No 1 seed will likely be expecting a much tougher match in the next round against last year’s Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina. For Bucsa, it was the first time in her career that she was playing in the third round of a Grand Slam.
Despite the loss, she’s set to climb the rankings even higher from her current position as the world No 89. There has already been a number of top seeds knocked out in the women’s draw with Ons Jabeur suffering a shock defeat in the second round on Thursday.
The Tunisian was aiming to reach her third Grand Slam final in a row, but was beaten in three sets by Marketa Vondousova.
Veronika Kudermetova, Daria Kasatkina, Danielle Collins, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Petra Kvitova and Aneet Kontaveit are also some of the top seeds already out of the tournament. But Swiatek will have to watch out for the likes of Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, both of whom have looked in impressive form so far.
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