Sport sometimes reminds us that we should never stop dreaming. At 30, on her 30th attempt, Poland’s Magda Linette reached her first semi-final in a Grand Slam tournament on Wednesday.
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The Poles were waiting for Iga Swiatek, the world number one. Or maybe Hubert Hurkacz, the 10th favorite in Melbourne. They will finally have Linette, 45th racquet in the WTA, one of the big surprises of these Australian Open who did not miss it.
The latter did not yet realize what had just happened when she went to meet the journalists, shortly after beating 6-3 and 7-5 in the quarter-finals the former world premiere, the Czech Karolina Pliskova, seeded 30th in Australia.
“I think I still don’t believe it,” smiled Linette in disbelief.
A surprising calm
The Pole knew her rival of the day well. They had already faced each other on nine occasions and the Czech had won seven times. Their most recent meeting in a major tournament was at the last US Open.
Pliskova won in the third-set tiebreaker in this first-round match. And it was not the first time: Linette had also suffered the law of the powerful hitter in the opening round of the US Open in 2017.
“I managed to stay calm mentally [mercredi], even when my first serve was not going very well, analyzed the Pole. I really managed not to panic and went for my shots in the rallies when I had the chance. »
An astonishing calm, given the importance of the match. Because not only Linette had not reached the semi-final of a major tournament before this fortnight, but she had never passed the third round in an event of this magnitude.
Except that she was used to these big stadiums, her ranking often forced her to meet the best ranked players from the first rounds.
“I have already faced many opponents of this level, recalled Linette. It was just another game. Of course, a game much further down the table. But I felt the same as usual. »