MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 22: Dayana Yastremska during her fourth round match at the Australian … [+] Open grand slam tennis tournament at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia on January 22, 2024 (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Qualifier Dayana Yastremska extended her fairytale journey at the Australian Open, securing her first Grand Slam quarter-final with a 7-6(6), 6-4 upset of two-time champion Victoria Azarenka on Monday.
Ranked 93rd in the world, Yastremska overcame two set points in the opening set and rallied from a break down in the second set, eliminating former world no. 1 Azarenka from the Melbourne Park major.
This triumph followed Yastremska’s earlier surprise victory against Wimbledon champion and seventh seed Marketa Vondrousova in her opening match.
“I played pretty aggressive, I think,” said Yastremska, who hit 38 winners to Azarenka’s 16. “In some moments I felt like I was too nervous and too emotional, but then I just relaxed and I said, like, ‘It’s going to be like it’s going to be. Just try to play each ball.’”
In the opening set, Belarusian Azarenka fought back from 3-1 down to serve for the set at 5-4, but Yastremska used her fiery forehands to break at love for 5-5.
Azarenka then held two set points on the Yastremska serve at 6-5, but she misfired on backhands on each of those occasions, allowing Yastremska to take the set to a tiebreak.
Yastremska sealed the tiebreak with a blistering forehand, wrapping up the set that lasted for a grueling one hour and 14 minutes.
Azarenka started strong in the second set, taking a 3-0 lead, but Yastremska reeled off five games in a row to fight back yet again. The 23-year-old Ukrainian held her nerve to serve for the match two games later, lashing across one more big backhand to book her spot in the quarter-finals.
Yastremska, who secured three WTA singles titles as a teenager, is the first qualifier to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final since Emma Raducanu at the 2021 U.S. Open. Raducanu went on to win the major at Flushing Meadows.
In the upcoming quarter-final, Yastremska will face fellow first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist Linda Noskova.
Noskova advanced after Elina Svitolina retired from their match after only three games, taking a medical timeout due to a back issue.
Noskova, who previously stunned world No.1 Iga Swiatek, praised Yastremska’s impressive performance, saying, “We’ve never played each other. I don’t really know the way she plays, but I think she’s more of, like, an aggressive tennis player.
“So I guess we won’t have a lot of rallies, but I think that I will just have to be prepared for anything because I don’t really know her style. We’ll see what happens.”
