Iga Świątek, hot favourite for the women's title, swept into the third round of the Australian Open before nine first-round matches were started as the weather continued to wreak havoc at Melbourne Park on Wednesday.
World number one Świątek overcame Camila Osorio 6-2 6-3 under the roof on Rod Laver Arena.
Rain kept the players off the outer courts for four hours after the scheduled start, however, adding to fixture congestion triggered by extreme heat and storms on Tuesday when nine matches did not get started and two could not be completed.
Świątek headlined the action that was possible early on Wednesday and was the first to admit that the scoreline did not reflect the difficulty of her contest against the 21-year-old Colombian.
The Polish top seed set off at a canter and was 4-0 up before Osorio found her range with her groundstrokes and scooted around the court to put huge pressure on Świątek's serve.
Two breaks of serve got the Colombian on the scoreboard at 5-2 but Świątek broke back to win the opening set and fended off another break point in the opening game of the second.
"It was really intense physically and Camila was running to every ball, she didn't give up," said Świątek.
"She didn't give me many points for free, so I needed to really work for each one of them, but I'm happy that I was consistent in being proactive and trying to just play a little faster to put pressure (on her)."
Świątek always had the measure of Osorio's serve, however, and even when she was broken serving for the match for the first time, a third round meeting with former U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu or Cristina Bucsa never looked in doubt.
Rockin' in the tennis world
AC/DC remains one of Iga Świątek's go-to rock groups to get her pumped up for matches but while the world number one's groundstrokes are leaving rivals thunderstruck she says she is still looking to manage expectations at the Australian Open.
Three-times Grand Slam winner Świątek, who has said listening to the likes of Guns N' Roses helped her win her first major title at Roland Garros in 2020, has gone as far as the semi-finals at Melbourne Park but is hot favourite this time around.
The Pole moved into the third round on Wednesday - where she will face Cristina Bucsa - and said there was no escaping the pressure of being ranked number one.
"It's not easy because with that number the expectations are a little bit higher from outside, but also for myself a little bit," she said.
"I'm trying to manage that properly. Also trying to kind of stay in my bubble during the tournament so I'm not going to get distracted by all of that," the Pole added.
"I don't want people to take for granted that if you're world number one that you're going to win everything because we still have to fight for every match."
The 21-year-old inherited the top ranking when Ash Barty retired shortly after winning last year's Australian Open and quickly proved worthy of the mantle, winning eight titles in 2022.
While some players adhere strictly to pre-match rituals for luck Świątek said she liked to switch things up with her playlist.
"I'm not superstitious, I would say I actually just changed my playlist before the match," she said, listing Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Lenny Kravitz among her favourites.
"I was listening to the same songs for like three years. It was tough. But I did that and it's working, so hopefully the songs are not going to mess up my head."
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Getty Images