Melbourne: World No.1 Iga Swiatek crashed out of the Australian Open after suffering a surprise loss in the third round of the tournament to 19-year-old Czech Linda Noskova 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 in two-hour 22 minutes battle.
The Pole broke Noskova in the sixth game of the first set to take a 4-2 lead and then closed out the set 6-3. However, the teenager kept her cool and in the second set managed to win all her serves, and a break in the eighth game brought her the victory in the set with 6-3.
In the decisive third part of the match, both the players exchanged a break each in their second service game. At 3-3, Noskova made another break, giving her an invaluable lead, which she kept and thus dropped the bomb in the women's race at the Australian Open.
For Noskova, this was for the first time at the Australian Open to reach in the last 16 stage. Last year, she had stormed into the second round of at Roland Garros.
"I don't know what to say. It was a fantastic match. I knew it could be a great match, but I didn't think I would be able to play this well. I'm proud of myself for making it to the next round," Noskova said in a post-match interview.
In the next round of the tournament, the Czech will play against the winner of the match between Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and Viktoria Golubich of Switzerland.
More surprises poured in the day as World No.10 Jelena Ostapenko, World No.11 Casper Ruud and World No.13 Grigor Dimitrov bade goodbye to the Australian Open.
The Latvian tennis player lost to Victoria Azarens 1-6, 5-7 after an hour and 24 minutes. Belarus defeated her for the fourth time, and in addition, she will look to the round of 16 of the Australian Open for the eleventh time.
The Norwegian Ruud was not enough against the British Cameron Norrie 4-6, 7-6, 4-6, 3-6 and the last surprising result of the day was provided by the Portuguese Nuna Borges, who defeated Dimitrov 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6.