Arina Sabalenka defeated Donna Vekic 6:3, 6:2 and secured her participation in the semifinals of the Australian Open, where the impressive Magda Linet also “fly” and eliminated Karolina Pliskova 6:3, 7:5.
The unstoppable and undefeated 2023 (9:0) Arina Sabalenka also defeated Donna Vekic 6:3, 6:2 and thus secured participation in the semifinals of the Australian Open for the first time in her career, but also in the 2nd major series their presence at the US Open last September.
Before the match, Vekic had an impressive 5-1 record against Sabalenka from 2016 to date, but they had never met in a Grand Slam.
The Belarusian finished with 9 aces (9 double faults), made 38 winners and committed 35 unforced errors while ending the quarterfinals with 5/13 break points.
On the other hand, the serve numbers were worse for Vekic, who made 12(!) double faults, had only 26% on the 2nd serve (9/35), 21 winners and 25 effortlessly.
Sabalenka grabbed a break after a difficult hold in game 3 in which she erased three break points from Vekic and took a 3-1 lead, but Vekic responded immediately (3-2).
The consecutive double mistakes and also the problematic 2nd serve by Vekic was then punished by Sabalenka with the No. 5 in the world to 5:3 and a little later to 6:3 to 1:0.
The 2nd leg of the quarterfinals was easier for the Belarusian, who broke her opponent’s serve three times to go 5-1 just after the big semifinal qualifier.
There she meets the pleasant surprise of the tournament, Magda Linet, in which the 320-year-old Pole defeats Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5.
The impressive Lynette flew into the semifinals
Magda Linet’s Melbourne dream continues as the 30-year-old Pole also eliminated Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5 in 87 minutes to reach a Grand Slam semi-final for the first time in her career.
What if world No. 1 Iga Sfiodek left Melbourne early? Poland continues to have a representative on the women’s board, from a tennis player who had her best grand slam run of 6 appearances in the 3rd up to and ahead of the 111th Australian Open 2021), Wimbledon (2019, 2021) and US Open (2020) .
The World No. 45 Pole once again relied on her defensive play, with Pliskova seeking two and three extra strikes to clinch the point.
On the other hand, the former Czech, world No. 1, seemed to lose her temper easily, also breaking out in her racquet, she had big problems on the 2nd serve (29%), falling into 7 double faults in the process. She also had easily 20 points more than her opponent (36-16).
The game started possibly perfectly for the 2019 semi-finalist who found a break in Linet’s first service game (1-0) which the Pole not only recaptured immediately but also found another to take the opener 6 -3 after 35 minutes.
In the second set, Pliskova threatened to break again, but this time Linet managed to intercept it, erasing both of the Czech’s break points and equalizing to make it 2-2. Two big holds followed from Pliskova, who deleted a triple break point (0/40) in game 5 while deleting three more in game 7 to take a 4-3 lead.
What she failed to do in that time, the Pole did in the 11th game with a 6-5 lead, but also with the balls in hand to end the match, which she did and achieved the biggest win of her career.
In the semifinals on Thursday (January 26) in the last game in the Rod Laver Arena, Lynette will face Arina Sabalenka, who shortly afterwards defeated Donna Vekic 6:3, 6:2.
Source: Tennis24
