There were mixed emotions for Ukrainian tennis fans at Melbourne Park on Monday after witnessing ecstasy for qualifier Dayana Yastremska, and then agony for Elina Svitolina.
Yastremska won her seventh consecutive match to continue her dream run all the way from qualifying into the quarterfinals when she beat former two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka at Rod Laver Arena in straight sets.
But later, a heartbroken Svitolina was forced to retire from her match with Czech teenager Linda Noskova after just three games with a sudden back injury.
In a top half of the women’s draw where three of the remaining players are ranked no higher than 50 in the world, Yastremska became the latest surprise name into the last eight with a 7-6(6) 6-4 victory.
“In some moments I felt like I was too nervous and too emotional, but then I just relaxed and I said, ‘It's going to be like it's going to be.’ Just try to play each ball,” said the world No.93.
Her reward is a meeting with Noskova, the player who benefited from Svitolina’s sudden retirement and who shocked world No.1 Iga Swiatek in the third round. Both are first-time Grand Slam quarterfinalists.
Svitolina had been in brilliant form and had dropped only 13 games on her way to the fourth round, but disaster struck in a lengthy opening service game when she felt something ‘pinch’ in her lower back.
After a medical timeout at 0-2, Svitolina was still in severe discomfort as she tried to play one more service game and abandoned the match in tears after just 23 minutes.
Anna Kalinskaya has been playing Grand Slam tennis since 2018, but had never been past the second round at any of the four majors.
The 25-year-old world No.75 kept powering through the draw by outplaying 26th seed Jasmine Paolini 6-4 6-2 at the venue where she won the girls’ doubles title in 2016.
She will go up against 12th seed Zheng Qinwen, who thrashed Frenchwoman Oceane Dodin 6-0 6-3 in the RLA night session to make it back-to-back quarterfinals at the majors.
The two highest-ranked players in the bottom half of the men’s draw – Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev – remain on a collision course.
Alcaraz continued to make up for missing last year’s AO through injury by crushing Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4 6-4 6-0 to move into his first quarterfinal at Melbourne Park.
The Spaniard will have to get past big-serving German Alexander Zverev in the last eight after the sixth seed won his second deciding tiebreak of the tournament, this time against British No.1 Cameron Norrie.
Norrie beat Casper Ruud in his previous match and looked like he might make it two big wins in a row when he forced a decider, only for Zverev to produce the better tennis over the closing moments to win 7-5 3-6 6-3 4-6 7-6[10-3].
Despite Medvedev missing match points for a straight-sets win over Portuguese No.1 Nuno Borges, the world No.3 quickly got things back on track to come through his fourth round match 6-3 7-6(4) 5-7 6-1. Afterwards, in one of the most unusual AO on-court interviews ever seen, the 27-year-old gave Jim Courier a return of serve masterclass.
One wonders whether Hubert Hurkacz will find time to watch that post-match debrief, as he’s the next man set to try to get the better of the 2021 US Open champion.
Hurkacz ended the run of French wildcard Arthur Cazaux 7-6(6) 7-6(3) 6-4 to become the first Polish man to reach the last eight in Melbourne.