MELBOURNE: Second seed Simona Halep survived a first-set wobble to beat Iga Swiatek 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the Australian Open fourth round on Sunday as the Romanian avenged her shock defeat by the Polish teenager at the same stage of last year’s French Open.
Swiatek, who knocked out Halep en route to her maiden Grand Slam title in Paris, used her booming groundstrokes to save two break points in the seventh game before immediately breaking the Romanian to love on her way to claiming the opening set.
Halep roared back with an early break in the second set as her crafty baseline play frustrated her teenage opponent, who made a string of errors.
The Romanian reeled off five consecutive games across the second and third sets before sealing victory in just under two hours at Rod Laver Arena.