Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska reached the Australian Open quarter-final, knocking out Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, who is playing under a neutral flag, on Jan. 22.
Yastremska, 23, beat former world No. 1 Azarenka in two sets 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 to get to the Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time.
“Family is my Ukraine,” she wrote on a broadcasting camera lens after her victory in the fourth round in Melbourne.
Twenty-three-year-old Yastremska is the fifth Ukrainian to reach the quarterfinals at the Grand Slam. She is the first among Ukrainian players to achieve it as a qualifier.
Two Ukrainian players will compete in the Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time in history. Marta Kostyuk earned a win over a neutral player, Maria Timofeeva of Russia, on Jan. 21 and will accompany Yastremska on the next stage.
The top seed among Ukrainians, Elina Svitolina, withdrew from a match against Chezh Linda Noskova in the fourth round. Svitolina left the court in tears as he could not continue due to a back injury. Noskova was leading 3:0 in the first set before the match stopped.
In the Australian Open quarterfinals, Yastremska will face Chezh teen Noskova, and Marta Kostyuk’s opponent will be current US Open champion Coco Gauff of the USA.
Dominic Culverwell
