Dayana Yastremska says she felt she was going to lose her match ’25 times’ before pulling off a shock win over Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
The world No.93 weathered the storm to beat Azarenka 7-6(6), 6-4, in what was a rollercoaster encounter. During the first set, Yastremska had a break advantage before later falling behind 3-5. Then after clawing her way back to draw level, she saved two set points when down 5-6 and then went on to edge out her rival in the tiebreaker. The challenges continued in the second set with the Ukrainian down 0-3 before winning six straight sets to seal a place in the last eight of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.
“I thought that I lost this match, like, 25 times,” said Yastremska.
“In some moments I felt I was too nervous and too emotional, but then I just relaxed. Just try to play each ball.”
Yastremska has become only the second player to have beaten two Grand Slam champions at a major after coming through qualifying. The first to do so was Jelena Dokic at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships. Besides Azarenka, the 23-year-old has also beaten Marketa Vondrousovsa.
The fairytale run is a reminder of Yastremska’s potential on the Tour. At a young age, she was tipped to be the next big thing after winning a trio of WTA titles before her 20th birthday. Then she was provisionally suspended for a doping violation before being later cleared of any wrongdoing.
She admits that in recent years her game has been affected by pressure and the ongoing war in her country.
“A lot of things affected me, and because of that I couldn’t really play like I wanted. Plus I put a lot of pressure on myself, as well,” she said.
“The war, of course, it’s affected us a lot because you cannot go home like you wanted, when you wanted, like it was before. You always read the news. You always see the videos.
“As I said before, for example, when I was in Brisbane (this month), the rocket arrived on my grandmother’s house. It’s tough emotionally to play.”
Meanwhile, Azarenka has criticised her performance after crashing out of the tournament.
“Not a good day for me playing-wise. I feel like I just wasn’t able to connect my game fully.” She said.
“I feel like I had a lot of opportunities still and just didn’t take advantage of them.”
Injury ends Svitolina’s bid
Embed from Getty ImagesThere was disappointment for another Ukrainian player after Elina Svitolina had to retire from her match against Czech teenager Linda Noskova. The former top 10 player was trailing 0-3 in the opening set before calling it quits due to a back injury.
“I never had that before, the shooting pain like this.” Svitolina later commented.
“I had some injuries to my back before where it just was tiredness, but this one was out of nowhere. I felt like someone shot me in the back.
“Hopefully it’s short-term, maybe a spasm or something, and hopefully I will be back training maybe in one week.”
Meanwhile, Noskova has become the fifth Czech teenager to have reached the last eight at Melbourne Park. Following in the footsteps of Helena Sukova, Nicole Vaidisova, Lucie Safarova and Martina Navratilova.
The youngster will next take on Yastremska in what will be their first Tour-level meeting.
“I don’t really know the way she plays, but I think she’s more of an aggressive tennis player,” Noskova said of Yastremska.
“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.”
Their quarter-final match will take place on Wednesday.
