- World No.2 beat Rebecca Sramkova on Thursday
- She struck trouble in her post-match interview
Iga Swiatek put a blemish on her great run at this year’s Australian Open when she got the crowd offside after her win on Thursday by claiming Sydney has better coffee than Melbourne.
The Victorian capital takes great pride in the quality of its brews and its supposed coffee superiority over Sydney is often raised in the long rivalry between the two cities.
Swiatek was speaking to Channel Nine’s Jelena Dokic after her straight-sets victory over Rebecca Sramkova when the topic turned to the subject of good cups of java.
‘I know you’re a great coffee lover and coffee drinker. What is Iga Swiatek’s coffee order and how does the coffee in Melbourne compare to the rest of the world? Be careful what you say here,’ Dokic asked.
‘I gotta say, in Sydney I found better coffee shops,’ Swiatek replied, setting off a loud chorus of boos from the crowd.
The four-time French Open champion then tried to get the fans back onside.
Iga Swiatek backtracked after she gave an honest opinion on the quality of Melbourne’s coffee compared to Sydney’s in a post-match interview with Jelena Dokic (pictured)
Melburnians are known for boasting that their coffee shops (pictured) have the edge over what’s on offer in the Harbour City
‘But no, no, no – guys, the thing is that also it’s not easy for me to fall asleep so during a grand slam I’m kinda, you know, my coffee level needs to be a bit lower so I’m only drinking it before the match, so I didn’t do the right research,’ she explained.
‘So sorry for my answer … overall, in Australia I think it’s hard to get the wrong coffee … every coffee shop keeps, like, a really great quality, and my order will always be flat white on oat milk.’
Dokic replied, ‘You saved a match point there.’
Melburnians were also up in arms when a survey found that the Harbour City is Australia’s coffee capital, with Sydneysiders drinking more cups of brew per week than their Victorian counterparts.
Swiatek’s victory means she will take on former US Open champ Emma Raducanu in a headline third-round clash at the Australian Open
The Pole showed no mercy to outclass Sramkova on Rod Laver Arena, winning 6-0 6-2.
Sramkova won only 10 points in a lopsided first set, a tally she was able to match in the first four games of the second as she fought to make it more of a contest.
Dokic joked that Swiatek (pictured during her win over Rebecca Sramkova on Thursday) saved a match point when she tried to calm the crowd
But the second-seeded Pole was keen to get the job done as quickly as possible on Rod Laver Arena, closing the contest out in just 60 minutes on her first match point.
‘I felt very solid today, it was an efficient game,’ said Swiatek, 23, whose best showing at the Open was a run to the semis in 2022.
‘I’m happy I kept my focus.
‘Sometimes when it seems a bit easy, that may cause problems later because your focus might be gone.’
Raducanu, 22, had to work considerably harder in her second-round encounter against close friend Amanda Anisimova before advancing 6-3 7-5.
‘It’s incredibly difficult whenever you play a friend, it adds another dimension to the match and not necessarily a pleasant one,’ said Raducanu, who created tennis history at the 2021 US Open when she became the first player – male or female – to win a major as a qualifier.
