Australia: Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon winner, set her sights on eliminating Iga Swiatek as the world’s top player after the Pole was knocked from the Australian Open with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph. With her victory at Rod Laver Arena, Rybakina qualified for the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park for the first time. The player will compete against Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia to advance to the final four.

Rybakina claimed there were still “many things to improve” on but that if she could maintain her current form she was a match for anyone. “If I perform like I did this week and it’s going to be consistently for sure, I will say that I can be number one, I can beat anyone,” the 23-year-old added.

Rybakina, a Kazakh player who was born in Russia, began her tournament campaign on an outside court, the first time she has ever played on one of Melbourne Park’s two main show courts. The 23-year-old had twice lost to top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, but her stunning run to the pre-quarterfinals at Melbourne Park showed that Swiatek would never have it easy, although had defeated Rybakina in their only WTA meeting last year in Ostrava.

Due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, Rybakina did not receive any ranking points for winning Wimbledon, so her current world ranking of 25 does not fully reflect her rising reputation in the women’s game.

Rybakina’s victory means the top two seeds in the men’s and women’s singles are all out before the quarter-finals. That has not happened at a major since the Open era began in 1968, as per the report.

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