By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Sunday, January 21, 2024
Qualifier Dayana Yastremska hit Victoria Azarenka off the court winning six of the final seven games in a 7-6(6), 6-4 triumph to reach her maiden major quarterfinal.
Photo credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty
Drained by a physical duel with former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, Dayana Yastremska was feeling cooked from playing catch-up.
Staring down a 0-3 second-set hole, her legs flagging and her heart pounding, Yastremska delivered transformative tennis.
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Yastremska turned Rod Laver Arena into the Boom Boom Room.
Detonating disruptive forehands, Yastremska hit two-time AO champion Azarenka off the court bursting through six of the final seven games in a 7-6(6), 6-4 triumph to reach her maiden major quarterfinal at the Australian Open.
“I feel my heart is going to jump out of my body,” Yastremska said of her second-set deficit. “First set I was losing the tiebreak. Second set I was losing so I always felt like I was running behind the train.
“I don’t know how to explain it. I think because I’m a little bit of a fighter I think that’s why I won this match. Plus the support was amazing.”
World No. 93 Yastremska played bigger, bolder tennis when it mattered most while Azarenka was betrayed by a sporadic first serve. Yastremska fired 38 winners—22 more than Azarenka—with 23 coming off that booming forehand wing.
Still, Azarenka twice served for the opening set, but Yastremska brough the dynamite drives to turn it around.
"I feel like just overall today, like balls were a bit off timing-wise," Azarenka said. "Serves were really low percentage of first serve today. Tried to kind of get into the game, tried to get the energy up, and didn't work today.
"Definitely very disappointing to not be able to convert some of the opportunities to hopefully get the ball rolling a little bit better, but it happens. It's disappointing that it happened in the fourth round of a Grand Slam, but I need to definitely look at it and see what I can do better and move on. It's as simple as that."
The victory vanquishes the final major champion from the top half of the draw, which means we will see a maiden major finalist from that top half.
“I like to play aggressive, but I don’t like to make a lot of mistakes,” Yastremska said. “Today, I felt a little bit tired and second set when I was losing 3-0 my coach told like play just two shots.
“How can I play in two shots? Then I just started: boom, boom, boom. I don’t know how to explain it. I was just enjoying playing and I saw my team was confident in me yelling come on! So I was like come on! Let’s go!”
It’s the seventh straight win for the Ukrainian qualifier, who won a trio of three-setters to qualify for the main draw, and her fourth Top 50 victory of this Melbourne fortnight.
The intense undercurrent of this match pitting Ukrainian Yastremska, who wore a blue-and-yellow dress to represent her country’s colors, against Belarusian Azarenka. Ukrainian players do not shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents in protest of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
So as expected, Yastremska skipped the post-match handshake after today’s win and celebrated with a clenched fist and wide smile instead.
Will face Czech break-out star Linda Noskova for a semifinal spot.
The 50th-ranked Noskova, who shocked world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in round three, held a 3-0 lead over Elina Svitolina when the 19th-seeded Ukrainian retired with a lower back injury.
Svitolina, who was playing for a third AO quarterfinal, appeared to strain her back during a grueling 20-point opening game that saw Noskova break. Svitolina took treatment from the trainer after the second game, but was clearly compromised and retired with tears in her eyes after only 23 minutes of play.
"I got a spasm, or I don't know exactly what it is, but like shooting pain in the first game, the last two points," Svitolina said. "Yeah, couldn't do anything. Completely locked my back. Just very sad, of course, so yeah."
Nearly five years removed from her lone win over Azarenka, Yastremska saved a break point to stamp the opening hold.
Squinting into the sun, Azarenka was struggling to locate her high toss and land her flat serve. Seeing a series of second serves, Yastremska made the veteran pay, rattling out a series of errors to earn first-break blood, 3-1.
Measuring her trademark two-hander Azarenka zapped a winning return to break back in the fifth game.
Twenty-seven minutes into the match, Yastremska stumbled on her right foot and fell to the court chasing a running forehand. Azarenka, who didn’t appear to glance at her fallen rival, locked in and held at 15 to level after six games.
The consistent depth of Azarenka’s drives earned her triple break point in the seventh game. Yastremska double faulted away the break.
Despite serving an unsightly 24 percent (making 5 of her first 21 first serves), Azarenka hung tough and continued to drain errors holding for 5-3.
Contesting her first AO round of 16 match, Yastremska slid successive aces forcing the Belarusian to serve out the set.
The former No. 1 ballooned a mid-court forehand about eight feet long them bumped a half volley into net to go down triple break point. Yastremska yelled “come on!” handcuffing her opponent to break and level after 10 games.
The pair traded break in the 11th and 12th games as Azarenka again served for the set at 6-5 and again saw her first serve go MIA. Yastremska converted her fourth break point to force the tiebreaker.
Ukrainian flag planted in her support box, Yastremska earned set point at 6-5. But Azarenka handcuffed her with the return down the middle and the server pasted a forehand into net.
Falling backward, Yastremska dipped a forehand winner inside the sideline for a second set point at 7-6.
Measuring a forehand, Yastremska slammed a massive forehand winner down the line snatching the 74-minute opening set with a bang.
Remarkably, Azarenka won only 7 of 29 first-serve points (29 percent) yet was still in position to take the set, served for it twice and was up 5-4 in the tiebreaker, two points from the set before the Ukrainian came back.
Credit Yastremska for playing more proactive tennis: She won 9 of 10 net points and clubbed 21 winners—15 more than Azarenka.
The 34-year-old Azarenka began landing her serve with more frequency. Azarenka breezed through eight of the first nine points on her serve in the second set, wrapping strong holds around a break, for a 3-0 lead after 91 minutes.
Down love-40, Azarenka saved three break points, whipping a wide ace to erase the third. But the Belarusian put a backhand into net as Yastremska broke back in the fifth game.
Straddling the baseline at times, Yastremska was belting the ball with more vigor. The woman wearing the blue-and-yellow dress and matching Yonex visor in tribute to her homeland hammered a backhand winner to break for her fourth game in a row and a 4-3 lead.
An Azarenka forehand flew long as Yastremska gained double match point.
Firing one final forehand into the corner—her 18th forehand winner of the day—Yastremska broke into a smile, raised a clenched fist then shook the chair umpire’s hand forgoing the traditional post-match handshake with Belarusian Azarenka as all Ukrainians have declined to shake hands with Russian and Belarusians in protest of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Afterward, Yastremska handed her tournament towel to a young fan in the crowd. Yastremska signed the court-side camera "Family is my Ukraine" with a heart.
The world No. 93 will rest and recover then try to keep this run, which saw her sweep Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova in the first round, rolling on.
"Yes, I am tired but I think you can see I’m barely standing, but I try to pretend I’m not tired," Yastremska said. "But I am little bit. I will take tomorrow off and after tomorrow is quarterfinals and I’m looking forward to it."