Elena Rybakina blows away Iga Swiatek to reach Australian Open semi-final against Jessica Pegula
Elena Rybakina took a significant step towards her second grand slam title as she overpowered and outplayed the second seed Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, advancing 7-5, 6-1 to end Swiatek’s hopes of completing the career grand slam this year.This immense victory sends Rybakina, the fifth seed and 2023 Australian Open finalist, into her fourth grand slam semi-final.It has been nearly four years since the 26-year-old made her first breakthrough by winning Wimbledon in 2022.Although she has won numerous big titles and established herself as one of the best players in the world, she has as yet failed to drag herself over the line at the grand slams for a second time.However, Rybakina arrived in Melbourne playing some of the best tennis of her career after dismantling the field at the WTA Finals last November.
The disdain with which she put Swiatek away here in set two reinforced her status as one of the leading contenders among the final four.She will face the sixth seed Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals after the American put together her own spectacular statement performance against the recent Wimbledon and US Open finalist Amanda Anisimova, holding firm at the end of a tight second set to advance to her first semi-final with a 6-2, 7-6 (1) win.Rybakina and Swiatek have built one of the most significant rivalries in the sport, having competed against each other on so many of the biggest stages.Although Swiatek is the superior player overall, the margins are tight and this is a match-up Rybakina relishes.Her destructive serve, the best in the world, neutralises Swiatek’s return and she robs Swiatek of time with her easy, destructive ball speed off both wings.
This is reflected in their countless tight matches, with the head-to-head now even at 6-6.The serve differential was the story here again.Rybakina did not even serve that well in the first set, landing just 41% of first serves.But she won 93% of the points behind it, conceding only one point.While Rybakina breezed through her service games to reach 6-5, Swiatek served badly under significant scoreboard pressure.
In that crucial 6-5 game, Rybakina’s aggression pressured Swiatek to take the initiative and the Pole played an error-strewn service game to relinquish the set,Having secured the opening set, Rybakina relaxed and she played with total freedom until the end,She was nearly unplayable, firing aces on important points and eviscerating the ball off both wings with total clarity, suffocating Swiatek with her aggression,There was no way out for the Pole, who once again had to endure the grim, familiar experience of being hit off the court by her cold-blooded Kazak rival,Afterwards, a disappointed Swiatek said she leaves the tournament determined to make significant changes to her game, particularly her serve.
She believes the time has come to employ a lighter schedule to ensure she has enough time at home to keep on improving.“Honestly, I know what I need to improve, and it’s kind of the same stuff that I had in my mind before the tournament as well.So there’s no, like, breakthrough lesson,” she said.“I’m just going to keep doing my job, and hopefully [by] the next tournament I’ll get some stuff settled in terms of what I want to do with my game.”As is often the case with Pegula, she has flown under the radar throughout this tournament.
Her game is less flashy than many of the nuclear shotmakers at the top of the game and she is a more composed, understated personality, meaning other players naturally command more attention.However, her level has been incredible in Melbourne, a consequence of her continuous improvement in the second half of her late-blooming career.Against Anisimova, her performance in the first set was surely one of the best sets of her entire life.She served supremely well, firing down six aces in the set, deflected Anisimova’s enormous ball speed with total ease, responding with flawless depth and sharply redirecting the ball off both wings.After Anisimova forced herself back into the match, establishing a 5-3 second set lead, Pegula coolly dragged herself back into the set.
She took advantage of Anisimova’s dire serving and then played a perfect tie-break to advance.Grand slam quarter-finals were once the greatest challenge of Pegula’s career after the 31-year-old lost the first six quarter-finals she contested.This week, she reached her third grand slam semi-final without dropping a set in five matches.However, with all of the top players congregating in the final stages of this tournament, there are no easy matches.She will have to neutralise another of the most devastating ball strikers in the game on Thursday as she faces Rybakina for a place in the final.
U-turn on pubs has not solved the government’s mess on business rates | Nils Pratley
Will the chancellor’s inevitable U-turn on business rates for pubs be enough to quieten the developing riot behind the taps? Possibly, a bit. After two months of damaging headlines, Rachel Reeves has granted pubs a 15% discount on bills, worth £1,650 on average in the next tax year, then a two-year freeze in real terms, with the promise of a change in methodology in time for the next revaluation in 2029. Live music venues get the same deal. The package is not insignificant, especially as it was the year-three escalation in bills that was causing the most angst.Yet it would be a mistake to think the government’s troubles on business rates end there
Hobbycraft issues full recall of asbestos-tainted children’s play sand
Hobbycraft has issued a full recall of children’s coloured play sand after confirming some bottles contained asbestos, presenting “a risk to health”.The Guardian revealed at the weekend that the craft retailer had stopped selling the kit after being alerted to the risk but had stopped short of alerting customers who had already bought the item.The asbestos was discovered by a customer whose children had played with the sand at a party. The parent, who did not wish to be named, recognised it from reports of a recall in Australia and New Zealand and paid for a lab test.She alerted Hobbycraft when three of the five bottles in its Giant Box of Craft set were found to contain fibrous tremolite asbestos
‘It’s a hospitality-wide problem’: night-time traders react to business rates relief plan
Gyms, local shops, restaurants, nightclubs and pharmacies have criticised the government for not extending business rates support beyond pubs and live music venues.The Treasury announced on Tuesday that every pub and live music venue in England would get 15% off its new business rates bill from 1 April, worth an average of £1,650 for each, with bills frozen in real terms for a further two years.However, there was no support announced for other sectors affected by the changes to rates, although there will also be a review of the methodology used to calculate how much hotels should pay alongside a parallel review for pubs.Leading trade bodies said that those overlooked still faced “severe challenges”. They accused ministers of having “suffocated employment opportunities” and said the decision to focus help just on pubs was “simply outrageous”
Pubs and live music venues to get support after business rates backlash
The Treasury has announced a support package worth more than £80m a year for pubs and live music venues in England, in a climbdown that follows a fierce backlash against plans to overhaul business rates.Trade bodies had warned that Rachel Reeves’s changes to business rates, announced at the chancellor’s November budget, would trigger widespread closures and job losses in the hospitality sector, particularly in pubs.On Tuesday, the government announced financial support to mitigate the effect of the rates shake-up, after officials admitted they had not foreseen its total financial impact.The package is expected to be worth more than £80m a year, over three years, for pubs and gig venues. It will only apply to England but the government said extra funding would be freed up for Scotland and Wales to follow suit
Treasury announces business rate support package worth more than £80m a year – as it happened
The Treasury has unveiled a support package worth more than £80m a year for pubs and live music venues in England and Wales, in a climbdown that follows a fierce backlash against plans to overhaul business rates.Trade bodies had warned that Rachel Reeves’s changes to business rates, announced at the chancellor’s November budget, would trigger widespread closures and job losses in the hospitality sector, particularly in pubs.On Tuesday, the government announced financial support to mitigate the effect of the rates shake-up, after officials admitted that they had not foreseen its total financial impact.The package, final details of which were still being hammered out on Monday night, is expected to be worth more than £80m a year, over three years, for pubs and gig venues.Dan Tomlinson, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said every pub in England and Wales would get 15% off its new business rates bill from 1 April, worth an average of £1,650 for each
Can’t decide on a food delivery? Just Eat launches AI chatbot to help you choose
In the beginning, collecting a takeaway was the epitome of a lazy night in. Then delivery apps saved some more energy. Now, consumers can skip even bothering to read the menu as AI takes over the job of choosing the perfect evening meal.Just Eat is introducing an AI voice assistant that lets customers discuss what they might be interested in eating, and then offers personalised recommendations.The food delivery company is launching what it calls a “personal food concierge” within Just Eat’s existing chat function on its UK app on Tuesday
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Australian Open 2026 quarter-finals: Pegula beats Anisimova after Rybakina stuns Swiatek – as it happened