The unseeded Magda Linette continued her dream run in the Australian Open as she defeated former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova to make it to her first career grand slam semi-final. Linette defeated Pliskova 6–3, 7–5 in the contest on Wednesday.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Jan 25, 2023 08:55 IST
Linette has continued her dream run at the Australian Open (Courtesy: AP)
By India Today Web Desk: Magda Linette continued her dream run at the Australian Open 2023 as she made it to the first major semi-final of her career by stunning former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5 on Wednesday.
Linette, who had defeated Top 20 seeds in succession including Caroline Garcia in the previous round, looked to be in fine touch to become the ninth oldest woman in the Open Era to reach a debut Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Pliskova came into the contest with a 7–2 head-to-head advantage over her Polish opponent. However, Linette had rattled the former World No.1 in their previous two meetings and beat her the last time they came face to face at the Billie Jean Cup in 2022. Pliskova started the contest by breaking Linette.
But that was the only loss of serve for the 30-year-old throughout the day as she quickly took the lead from Pliskova. Serving for the set at 5-3, the Polish star did find herself staring down a break point, but quickly recovered to seal the deal.
In the second set, the former World No.1 did well to eliminate three break points when the score was 2-2 and 3-3. But Pliskova faltered with the score at 5-5 with two straight double faults and a forehand miscue.
Linette would make Pliskova pay for these errors and won the game with a scoreline of 6–3, 7–5 to progress to the semi-final of the Australian Open.
The Polish star matched Pliskova in terms of winners, with both women having 18 apiece. But it was the unforced errors that proved to be the difference in the contest.
Linette had kept her count limited to 16 while Pliskova had 36 unforced errors during the clash. The 30-year-old will play either No. 5 seed Aryna Sabalenka or Donna Vekic in the last four in Melbourne.