Sabalenka and Linette as the last women to reach the Australian Open semi-finals | Tennis

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Jan 25, 2023 at 07:08 Update: 2 minutes ago

Aryna Sabalenka and Magda Linette reached the semifinals of the Australian Open on Wednesday. The Belarusian and Polish were too strong for Donna Vekic and Karolína Plísková respectively.

Sabalenka, placed fifth, was clearly a size too big for Vekic, who occupies 64th place in the world rankings. Within two hours it was 6-3 and 6-2. Vekic hit thirteen double faults.

It is the fourth time for Sabalenka that she is in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament. In the previous three times – in 2021 at Wimbledon and the US Open and last year also at the US Open – she did not reach the final.

Linette is in the semi-finals of one of the four major tournaments for the first time. The unseeded Polish was surprisingly 6-3 and 7-5 too strong for Plísková, who was seeded thirtieth.

In the previous round, Linette, who is in good shape, had already settled Caroline Garcia, the number four on the placement list. She had lost seven of the previous nine encounters with Plísková.

Sabalenka and Linette now meet in the semifinals. The other semi-final battle is between Elena Rybakina and Victoria Azarenka, the numbers 22 and 24 of the placement list.

Thirty-year-old Magda Linette is in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. Photo: Getty Images

Schuurs stranded in the quarter-finals of doubles

In doubles, Demi Schuurs did not get past the quarterfinals. The Dutch and her American partner Desirae Krawczyk lost 6-2 and 6-3 to Barbora Krejcíková and Katerina Siniaková. The Czech players, seeded first in Melbourne, won the title last year.

The 29-year-old Schuurs, the number eighteen in the world in doubles, did reach the semi-final at the Australian Open two years ago. Last year she missed the first Grand Slam tournament of the year due to a medical procedure.

Schuurs and Krawczyk were placed sixth. They won twice in Melbourne against an Australian duo that had been admitted with a wild card.

Jan 24, 2023 at 7:04 AM

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24 Jan 2023 at 06:48

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Beeld: Getty Images

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