(Melbourne) Two days after reaching the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career, Madga Linette has now reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
The 30-year-old Linette defeated Karolina Pliskova in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 on Wednesday, adding the former world number one to the list of players she has beaten at Melbourne Park during the tournament.
Linette, who had lost seven of her last nine meetings against Pliskova, defeated Anette Kontaveit, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Caroline Garcia, the ATP Finals champion, in a row.
A Polish woman was among the favorites to reach the last rounds of the tournament, but it was rather Iga Swiatek that everyone was waiting for, and not Linette.
“It’s so emotional, I can’t really believe it,” Linette said. I tried to stay calm and took my chances when I could. »
Linette will face fifth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, who easily defeated Donna Vekic in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday.
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, 5e world, qualified, Wednesday in Melbourne, for the semi-finals of the Australian Open where she will face the Polish Magda Linette (45e).
Sabalenka, 24, beat Croatian Donna Vekic (64e) 6-3, 6-2 in an hour. She thus joins for the first time the last four of the Australian Major where she remained on three 8are finals in the last three editions.
She has already played three Grand Slam semi-finals (Wimbledon 2021, United States Open 2021 and 2022) without ever reaching the final.
PHOTO NG HAN GUAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aryna Sabalenka
“It is always difficult to play against her [Vekic]. But I expected her to play the way she did and so I was ready,” commented the Belarusian who had lost five of her previous six encounters with the Croatian.
“I did not know this statistic and so much the better,” joked Sabalenka who has still not lost a single round of the season, which began with a title at Adelaide 1.
On Wednesday, Vekic was betrayed by her serve: she committed 14 double faults (against nine for Sabalenka), but above all she gave up her face-off five times when she herself only converted two of the 14 balls from breaks obtained in a match finally well controlled by his opponent.
Sabalenka, however, had a little trouble concluding: on two double faults, she gave two break points to Vekic who got a third with a winning shot. But each time Sabalenka came back and she concluded on her first match point.