“But I’m just really glad to get through this one. I was a little [bit] shaking, obviously I didn’t hit two first serves which was not the best start for me but then I pulled out an ace.” Laura Robson, who was interviewing Noskova on court, noted that some of the fans had taken to calling her ‘Aussie Linda’ during the match as they cheered her on.
And the 19-year-old was happy to accept the offer of becoming an honourary Australian, adding: “I’m ready. Thank you so much guys for supporting me.” As for Swiatek, the world No. 1 joins a long list of players who failed to make it out of the first week, including third seed and last year’s runner-up Elena Rybakina.
The Kazakh lost to Anna Blinkova in a record-breaking final set tiebreak in the second round. Jessica Pegula and Daria Kasatkina have also been among the top women’s singles players to crash out. On the men’s side, No. 8 seed Holger Rune suffered a second-round exit while top 15 stars Casper Ruud, Grigor Dimitrov and Tommy Paul lost on Saturday.
