Australian Open: Swiatek paying rankings little mind ahead of Raducanu tie

Iga Swiatek insists she pays no attention to the WTA rankings as she prepares to face Emma Raducanu at the Australian Open.

Swiatek swatted aside Rebecca Sramkova 6-0 6-2 inside an hour on Thursday to book her place in round three.

Raducanu, meanwhile, progressed to the third round at Melbourne Park for the first time in her career with a battling 6-3 7-5 victory over Amanda Anisimova.

The 2021 US Open champion is ranked 61st in the world, while Swiatek is second behind Aryna Sabalenka.

Yet Swiatek, who has a 100% winning record against Raducanu from three previous matches and has won her past 16 matches against opponents ranked outside the WTA top 20, does not look at rankings when preparing to face her opponents.

"Honestly, there's no point in looking at rankings, especially when you have these great players that have already been through great tournaments and won some tournaments," Swiatek told reporters.

"You know that they can play well. Maybe they're not consistent [enough] to have the ranking, but still, you need to be on your toes and ready because you don't know what they'll show this week.

"So, no, I don't look at rankings at all.

"It's going to be a tough one. Emma can play great tennis. We all know that. I'll just prepare as before any other match."

11.9 - In completed matches, Iga Swiatek has claimed 11.9% of total Women’s Singles sets by a score of 6-0 at GS events – only Margaret Court and Chris Evert have a higher rate in the Open Era (minimum 100 sets). Absurd.#AO2025 | @AustralianOpen @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/G8orgKdwhG

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) January 16, 2025

Asked if coming into the season's first major not being ranked as the world's best has helped ease the pressure, Swiatek added: "I remember for the past two years I started at number one, so I felt like I needed to show from the beginning of the season my tools and what I can play.

"Yeah, there was a lot of pressure starting the year as number one, but I think overall last year I didn't think about it this much anyway.

"Also, I realised last year that I don't have 100% influence on what happens with my ranking sometimes. So now I just focus on tennis.

"If I play well, I know I'll be back at number one. If I don't and Aryna plays better, she'll be number one. I think it's just smarter to focus on tennis, and the ranking will come after that."

Since the start of 2020, Swiatek (174) has claimed the most combined match wins at grand slam and WTA 1000 events.

The 23-year-old holds the highest grand slam win percentage of any active female player (minimum 10 matches played), with 82.5% (85-18).

Swiatek has already won five grand slam titles, while Raducanu has failed to kick on since her US Open triumph.

However, Swiatek believes it is easy to forget how hard it is to consistently remain at the top of the game.

"Sometimes when I lose some matches, I realise that people just expect me to win because I won so much earlier [in my career]," she said.

"But no, this is constant work and taking care of many things also off the court and having good people around you, managing your whole life basically so you can play well and consistently.

"Everybody's story is different, and everybody struggles with different stuff. When we're going to be out there on the court, whoever is going to play better will win, and that's it."