Dayana Yastremska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian qualifier, kept her dream run at the Australian Open alive when she stormed into the semifinals with a convincing win over 19-year-old Czech Linda Noskova. On a blazing hot day, Yastremska powered to a 6-3, 6-4 win to reach the penultimate round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Yastremska, the world No. 93, is the fifth qualifier in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam semifinal, and the second to do it at the Australian Open after Christine Dorey in 1978. Interestingly, three of them have done it this decade - Briton Emma Raducanu, who won the US Open title two years ago, and Argentina's Nadia Podoroska, who reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2020.
In Thursday's second semifinal, Yastremska will play China's No. 12 seed Zheng Qin wen, who rallied from a set down to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal, overcoming Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1 in two hours and 20 minutes.
Zheng, the powerful Chinese who made her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the US Open last year, won 10 of the last 11 games of the match to become the third Chinese major semifinalist in history. She follows in the footsteps of two time Grand Slam champion Li Na, the winner here in 2014. The result also guarantees that Zheng will make her top10 debut. The first semifinal will see Coco Gauff play defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed
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