AFP, Melbourne :

Iga Swiatek raced into the third round of the Australian Open (AO) on Thursday with a 6-0, 6-2 demolition of Rebecca Sramkova, taking another step on the road to redemption after a doping ban last year.

Second seed Swiatek broke the Slovakian’s first service game and never looked back.

World number 49 Sramkova was playing in the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time and had no answer to the precision and power of the Pole.

Swiatek won 64 percent of points off the Slovakian’s first serve in an opening set that lasted 27 minutes, the Pole dropping just 10 points.

Sramkova finally got on the board in the eighth game of the match, to huge cheers from the sympathetic Rod Laver Arena crowd.

But Swiatek remained in total control, closing out a comprehensive victory after exactly one hour on court.