Semifinal Showdowns Set at Australian Open
We have reached the semifinal stage of the 2024 Australian Open, with four players remaining on both the men’s singles and women’s singles at the year’s first major.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, who came through qualifying to be in the main draw, continued her run as she defeated Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-4. Yastremska who had never made it past the fourth round at any of the four majors, is now into her first career major semifinal.
“I will say I didn’t have, like, a huge tactic for today. The most important thing for me was to keep the energy up, because I had a lot of matches here already and played a lot of sets,” said Yastremska. “You feel the tiredness, and it’s normal. The main goal was just to keep the energy up and stay positive, even if I was doing sometimes stupid mistakes. I’m not really looking up the ranking of the players who I’m playing, because I think it’s not so important, ranking. The girls, you know, at any ranking can show amazing game. I was doing just my thing and focusing on myself, the way I play. I think that’s working.”
She will try to use that strategy to reach the final when she takes on 12th seed Qinwen Zheng of China, who booked her spot in her first career major semifinal. Zheng came back from a set down to beat Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1 in her quarterfinal.
“I lost the first set and it was really, really difficult. She’s playing really good. That was a really tough match. So emotional. It’s more than just tennis on court,” said Zheng. “At the beginning of the first set I’m just thinking too much. That’s why I lost the first set, because I got those early breaks. Then later on I’m not able to keep my serve. Of course that’s one of my problems. So when I lost the first set, I tried to tell myself, ‘Stay focused. Don’t think too much. Just focus right now.’”
In the other women’s singles semifinal, defending champion Aryna Sabalenka will meet reigning U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff in a rematch of that U.S. Open final from last fall. Each won their respective quarterfinal matches on Tuesday, as Sabalenka cruised past Barbora Krejcikova 6-2, 6-3 while Gauff held off Marta Kostyuk 7-6(6), 6-7(3), 6-2.
On the men’s side, 10-time Australian Open champion and top-seed Novak Djokovic will look to reach yet another final Down Under when he takes on fourth-seed Jannik Sinner, who will be competing in his second major semifinal. Djokovic knocked off American Taylor Fritz in four sets in his previous match, while Sinner defeated Andrey Rublev in straight sets to book his spot in the final four.
“I’m really lucky to face him again,” Sinner said of playing Djokovic. “This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world. I’m happy I can play against the No. 1 in the world. He won here 10 times, so it’s going to be tough. The only thing that I can control is I will give 100 percent, I will fight for every ball and then we will see what the outcome will be.”
Daniil Medvedev overcame a strong challenge from ninth-seed Hubert Hurkacz to win 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 and advance to the semifinals.
“It was tough,” Medvedev said. “I knew how Hubi can play, and in my opinion, he played quite well today. I felt like the games, almost all of them, probably except 2-0 in the first set, I felt like every game I had a small chance, I managed to take it…I played a little better on my serve. I don’t know why, but my serve doesn’t bother Hubi as much as other players. I feel other players probably don’t really like me to play. I serve aces, they don’t break me a lot. Hubi returns almost every one of my serves. Tough matchup, but that makes me even happier to win and be in the semis.”
Awaiting Medvedev in the semifinals is Alexander Zverev, who defeated second-seed Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-4 to close out the event’s quarterfinals. Zverev held off a potential comeback from Alcaraz by breaking the Spaniard at 4-4 in the fourth set, and proceeded to serve out the match.
“I was playing one of the best players in the world. Over the past two years he has been No. 1 or No.2 constantly. He’s won two Grand Slams, and when you are up 6-1, 6-3, 5-2, you start thinking,” said Zverev. “We are all human and it is a great honor to play against guys like him. When you’re so close to winning your brain starts going and it is not always helpful, but I’m happy that I got there in the end. I fought back quite well in the fourth set, didn’t let go and I’m very happy that I finished the match.”
