MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Poland’s former French Open champion Iga Swiatek dominated from the baseline to roll over Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-2 6-3 on Saturday to storm into the Australian Open fourth round.

The Twenty third-ranked Kasatkina, a former top-10 participant, gained the pair’s solely earlier assembly in 2021 however that match was performed on grass.

Seventh-seeded Swiatek, who gained the claycourt Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2020, hit 24 winners and broke Kasatkina’s serve twice in every set to cruise through the competition at Margaret Court Arena in a single hour and 34 minutes.

The 20-year-old will subsequent meet both one other Russian in tenth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Thirty eighth-ranked Sorana Cirstea of Romania for a spot within the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park.

“The match was actually intense,” Swiatek, who has misplaced solely 12 video games throughout three matches this week within the yr’s opening main, mentioned on courtroom. “It’s the start of the season so I’m fairly recent and pumped up.”

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; enhancing by Ken Ferris)