As the second women’s qualifier to reach the Australian Open semifinals, Dayana Yastremska creates history

NEW DELHI: Dayana Yastremska, a tennis player from Ukraine, made history on Wednesday at the Australian Open by becoming just the second woman to qualify for the semifinals of the esteemed competition in the Open Era.

The world number 93 defeated Linda Noskova, an unseeded Czech player, 6-3, 6-4 in 78 minutes with a dominant display on Rod Laver Arena.
Yastremska made history by becoming the first women’s qualifier to reach the last four at the season-opening Grand Slam since Australia’s Christine Matison in 1978. She will now play either unseeded Russian Anna Kalinskaya or Chinese 12th seed Zheng Qinwen in the semifinals.

Yastremska was happy by her historic accomplishment and said, “It’s nice to make history because at that time I wasn’t even born.” next generation and it’s good to leave a legacy. I’m ecstatic. Though I didn’t feel like I was playing at my best, I performed well. I just play as I can. All that was left was battling, and I’m honestly a little bit fatigued.”
Yastremska had to overcome obstacles to get to Melbourne Park’s main draw since she was defeated in all three of her qualification matches.
After entering the main draw, however, she improved her performance. In the first round, she defeated seventh seed and Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova, and in the fourth round, she defeated two-time champion Victoria Azarenka.

World No. 50 Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic, her opponent in the quarterfinals, had also caused a stir with notable triumphs, such as upsetting No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek in the third round.
In the quarterfinal match, Yastremska quickly leveled the score at 2-2 after Noskova broke early in the third set. In the eighth game, Yastremska made a critical break that let her finish the set with accuracy.
A crucial point in the second set occurred in the seventh game when Yastremska broke with a powerful backhand winner, easily winning the match.
With a career-high ranking of 21, Yastremska, 23, was declared free of doping in June 2021 after a successful appeal over a failing test that had first resulted in a penalty. Notably, she made history by being the first qualifier to reach a major quarterfinal since Emma Raducanu at the US Open in 2021.