Iga Swiatek responds to warning from umpire before match at Australian Open - 'I didn’t hear you!'

Updated 22/01/2023 at 10:24 GMT

It was not a good day for world No. 1 Iga Swiatek as the favourite to triumph in the women's singles crashed out in straight sets at the fourth-round stage of the Australian Open to Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina on Sunday. It was a shock defeat for the top seed, and her day did not begin well either as she received a time violation before the match had even started.

Watch as stunned Swiatek receives warning from umpire before match even starts

Top seed Iga Swiatek received a warning from umpire Zhang Juan before her fourth-round match had even started at the Australian Open.

The world No. 1 suffered a surprise defeat to an inspired Elena Rybakina, who triumphed in straight sets, 6-4 6-4, as the reigning Wimbledon champion from Kazakhstan again stepped up when it mattered on the big stage.

It was a crushing disappointment for Swiatek to fall short in the fourth round at Melbourne Park, and her day did not start well either as she was handed a warning from the umpire before the match had even started for taking too long to get ready.

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The surprise exchange began with Zhang reminding Swiatek that "It is the start of the match..."

The Pole responded: "Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah."

Just moments later, Zhang announced: "Start of match violation, Ms Iga Swiatek."

Swiatek walked over to the chair and said: "I didn't hear you!"

"No," came the reply, "but it is already 10:30 and you are still at the bench."

Eurosport commentator Peter Odgers felt that the ruling from Zhang was a fair one given the timings.

"Yeah, I've got to say, Zhang Juan, the chair umpire, that’s pretty fair. It is 10 minutes since they were meant to have started the match. So already, Iga Swiatek has been given a code violation for a delay."

Highlights: Rybakina blows away world No. 1 Swiatek to reach quarter-finals

Although Swiatek ensured she paid sufficient tribute to her opponent in her post-match press conference, she also felt that she had been caught up mentally in the encounter - and the tournament more broadly.

“I felt like I took a step back in terms of how I approach these tournaments, and I maybe wanted it a little bit too hard," she admitted.

“So I’m going to try to chill out a little bit more. That’s all. For sure, the past two weeks have been pretty hard for me.

“I felt today that I don’t have that much to take from myself to fight even more. I felt the pressure, and I felt that I don’t want to lose instead of I want to win. So that’s a base of what I should focus on in the next couple of weeks.”