{"id":438934,"date":"2026-01-26T17:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/438934\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T17:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:27:09","slug":"after-losing-to-iga-swiatek-maddison-inglis-has-surprising-plans-to-spend-her-480000-australian-open-pay-cheque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/438934\/","title":{"rendered":"After losing to Iga Swiatek, Maddison Inglis has surprising plans to spend her $480,000 Australian Open pay cheque"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inglis raised her arms in mock triumph, and the crowd erupted, when a miscued Swiatek backhand ballooned long to award the Australian her first game at the start of the second set \u2013 and about half an hour into the contest.<\/p>\n

She even had a game point for a 2-0 lead, but her second game for the match did not come until she was already 4-1 down, which she celebrated with a fist pump, then a cheeky peace sign while saying \u201ctwo\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Swiatek]\u2019s done it to a few people where she doesn\u2019t let them have a game,\u201d Inglis said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a natural thought going out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facing Swiatek\u2019s mighty forehand, which generates enormous topspin and averages about 3200 revolutions per minute \u2013 Rafael Nadal-like levels \u2013 was an experience in itself for Inglis.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a next-level player. You feel that pressure from every ball from her,\u201d she said of Swiatek.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did say to Jason [Kubler, her fiancee and fellow player] after, he maybe should have spun it a bit more because I was hitting with him the last couple of days to get used to that. The first couple of balls in the warm-up; I was hitting them up here [gesturing above her shoulder].<\/p>\n

\u201cI was, like, \u2018Whoa, that wasn\u2019t what we had practised\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swiatek\u2019s victory sealed a 34-year first for the Australian Open women\u2019s draw, and ensured a thrilling climax to the title race.<\/p>\n

The world No.2 and the rest of the top six seeds \u2013 Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula \u2013 have reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne for the first time since 1991. It has not happened at any major since the 1998 US Open.<\/p>\n

Pegula sent her close friend and defending champion Madison Keys packing from the tournament in a 6-3, 6-4 result in the fourth round.<\/p>\n

\"Iga<\/p>\n

Iga Swiatek has made six grand slam quarter-finals in a row. Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Swiatek, 24, is the youngest woman to reach the last eight at six grand slams in a row since Serena Williams in 2003. Up next for her is 2023 finalist Rybakina, who blitzed 21st seed Elise Mertens 6-1, 6-3.<\/p>\n

Swiatek has won six of her 11 matches against the Kazakh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say head-to-head matters because even when one of us was winning, it was always a tight match, or she beat me easily,\u201d Swiatek said.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense to over-analyse who won the last ones, or how it has been looking. Every match is a different story. In every match, she\u2019s been a tough opponent, and her tennis, for sure, is great. I need to be 100 per cent ready, and go for it, and use my experience and also the knowledge from previous matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about the Australian Open:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inglis raised her arms in mock triumph, and the crowd erupted, when a miscued Swiatek backhand ballooned long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-438934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}