Not Iga Świątek, not Hubert Hurkacz, and unexpectedly Magda Linette was the only Polish representative in the quarterfinals of this year’s single on Wednesday Australian Open. After defeating such players as the Estonian Anett Kontaveit, the Russian Jekaterina Aleksandrova or the winner of the last WTA Finals, the French Caroline GarciaThe 30-year-old Polish woman played for the semi-final with the former leader of the world ranking, the Czech Karolina Pliskova, and again she was not the favorite of this competition.
Magda Linette in the Australian Open semi-final. Pliskova was helpless
Pliskova did not lose even one set in the previous rounds, but she faced much weaker opponents than Linette. Wednesday’s match, however, the more titled Czech started better, because in the first game she hit the forehand so well that she broke the Polish tennis player. Fortunately, this did not break Linette in any way, who already in the next game repaid her rival with beautiful and it was 1:1.
The next games are further, absolutely spectacular game of the 30-year-old Poznań player. Linette, after losing the first game, won five of the next six. At one point, she even scored eight points in a row, breaking her opponent to 4:2 without losing a single point. The Polish woman served well, withstood the strong blows of the Czech woman, and also changed the pace well, thanks to which she was able to chase Pliskova around the court many times.
With the score 5:2, the tennis player from the Czech Republic managed to win one more game, and in the next one she even won a break point. Linette, however, withstood the pressure and won with two serves pi³ke set, and after a while, after the opponent’s auto play, she could enjoy winning the first set 6:3. Linette’s shout of joy, angry Pliskova throwing a racket on the court – the Polish woman was one set from the Australian Open semi-final.
In the second set, both tennis players won their serve for a long time, but it cannot be said that they did it without problems. In the fourth game, Magda Linette came out of serious trouble, defending two break points and waiting for her rival’s mistakes in the game for advantage. In the next match, it was the Polish woman who was in a great position, because she was leading 40:0 on the opponent’s serve, but then Pliskova started flawlessly hitting from the serve and forehand, thanks to which she won this time after defending as many as three break points.
After easily winning the service game at 3:3, Linette again had excellent opportunities to break her rival. However, this time she was unable to take advantage of any of the three chances, although she lost one of them through a return, which came out minimally in a car. Pliskova won the game again by advantage.
Once it failed, the second time too, the third time Magda Linette finally got her way. And this third time came at the perfect time – at 5:5. However, it must be honestly admitted that it was Karolina Pliskova who finally could not withstand the pressure from the Polish woman – in her own service game she made four errors of her own, including two double service errors, and practically gave the game to the Poznań woman.
This chance Linette could not waste. Although Pliskova bit back, the Polish woman won the service game to 30 and could celebrate another greatest achievement in her career! She won 6:3, 7:5, as the third Polish woman in the open era after Agnieszka Radwańska and Iga Świątek, she advanced to the semi-finals of the Australian Open and will have a chance to become the first Polish woman to play in finale w Melbourne.
For this to happen, Linette must win the semi-final, in which she will face the winner of the meeting Aryna Sabalenka (WTA 5, Belarus) – Donna Vekić (WTA 64, Croatia). The semi-final will take place on Thursday.
