Dayana Yastremska slays at Australian Open, defeats Linda Noskova for first major semifinal

Dayana Yastremska’s excellent adventure at the Australian Open continues with a semifinal berth, knocking out Linda Noskova, 6-3, 6-4 for the biggest result of her career.

"It's nice to make a history," she said of being the first qualifier to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open since 1978. "It's something new for me and for my generation, because the last time it happened it was a long time ago. I wasn't born yet. It's nice. I'm really happy to be in my first semifinals."

The 23-year-old came through qualifying and defeated two major champions en route to the last eight, and played consistent aggression against the woman who shocked world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the third round, advancing into the final four after 78 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Yastremska has fond memories playing in Melbourne, facing Serena Williams in her main-draw debut back in 2019, a result that set the stage for a breakthrough season in which she won two titles and peaked just outside the Top 20 by the start of 2020.

But beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic, she was beset by a series of personal and professional struggles, including the trauma of escaping Ukraine as a refugee upon Russia and Belarus’ unprovoked invasion into her homeland, that took her outside the Top 150 last year.

Forced to play qualifying, Yastremska took that momentum into the main-draw from the first match, dropping just three games against reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova and backed up that form in the fourth round with a hard-fought victory over Victoria Azarenka.

Across the net was an equally in-form Noskova who, at 19, has been one of the players to watch since last year, when she reached her first WTA final at a 500 event in Adelaide last year.

She proved her mettle on one of the biggest stages in tennis when she rallied from a set down to stun Swiatek, and led Elina Svitolina 3-0 in the fourth round when the former world No. 3 was forced to retire due to a back injury.

While that could have helped the Czech teenager be fresh for the biggest match of her young career, it seemingly left her on the back foot as Yastremska picked up where she left off against Azarenka, striking the ball with authority to turn around an early break deficit to win five of the opening set's final six games.

"I didn't have a huge tactic for today," Yastremska said. "The most important thing was for me is to keep the energy up, because I had a lot of matches here already and played a lot of sets. You know, 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 tried not to get angry on myself, because I understood why it's happening."

The second set went with serve until the sixth game, when Yastremska opened up a 15-40 lead, and shook off the loss of both break chances to convert a third; two games later she was serving for the match.

An ace brought her within two points of victory, and two more unreturned served booked her place in the semifinals in just under 80 minutes.

A self-described perfectionist, Yastremska played a largely clean match on Wednesday, striking a near-even 19 winners to 23 unforced errors while winning just under 80% of points behind her first serve. Noskova, by contrast, managed just six winners to 21 errors, sending Yastremska into an intriguing semifinal against either No. 12 seed Zheng Qinwen or Anna Kalinskaya.