Dayana Yastremska has put together a dream run at the Australian Open. She became the first women’s qualifier in 45 years. She beat Linda Noskova of Czech Republic 6-3 6-4 at the Rod Laver Arena to reach her maiden Grand Slam semi finals after coming through the qualifiers.
The Ukrainian is a junior Grand Slam runner-up in both singles and doubles. At the 2016 Australian Open, she and Anastasia Zarycka endured defeat in the doubles title clash against Anna Kalinskaya and Tereza Mihalíkova. At Wimbledon later that year, she beat top seed Olesya Pervushina in the singles semifinals before losing to Anastasia Potapova in the final.
Dayana Yastremska joins Martina Hingis
Yastremska became just the fourth player in the last 40 years to reach the semi-finals at the Australian Open after defeating only top-50 players on her way to the last-4 stage. She follows on the footsteps of Gabriela Sabatini in 1994, Martina Hingis in 1997 and Dominika Cibulkova in 2014.
The Ukrainian hit a powerful forehand and eventually overcame the 19-year-old Czech, who was the youngest player left in the draw. Dayana Yastremska follows in the footsteps of Christine Dorey, the last qualifier to reach the Melbourne Park semis 45 years ago.
“I think it’s nice to make history because at that time I wasn’t born,” Dayana Yastremska said on court after the match. “It’s next generation making history and I’m so happy, and tired.”
The players exchanged breaks early in the first set. However, it was Yastremska who took the lead in the eighth game when Noskova netted a backhand. Though she failed to get nearly half her first serves in, the Yastremska kept the pressure on with a string of forehand winners throughout the match.
Noskova failed to capitalise on a break point when she was down 5-3 and Yastremska wrapped up the first set in 36 minutes with another forehand.
The players were having neck-to-neck battle throughout the second set until the seventh game when Yastremska secured her third break point with a backhand winner. She finished the match on serve when Noskova’s backhand return hit the net.
