Qualifier Yastremska, Noskova make quarters, Medvedev marches on

Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska and Czech giant-killer Linda Noskova continued their stunning runs into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Monday as Daniil Medvedev added another familiar face to the men’s last eight.

While the men’s seedings have held pretty much firm at Melbourne Park over the last nine days, there has been upset after upset in the top half of the women’s draw to leave a field almost entirely denuded of household names.

Yastremska played her part by ousting Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round and added another former Grand Slam champion to the list of her victims with a 7-6(6) 6-4 victory over 18th seed Victoria Azarenka.

Riding a sizzling backhand, the world number 93 had to fight for her victory over the twice Melbourne Park champion as she came from behind in both sets and smashed 38 winners on Rod Laver Arena.

“I thought that I had lost this match 25 times,” the 23-year-old said after her victory over the Belarusian.

“I played pretty aggressive, I think. In some moments I felt like I was too nervous and too emotional, but then I just relaxed and said, ‘it’s going to be like it’s going to be’.”

Yastremska, whose grandmother’s house was hit by a rocket while she was playing a warm-up tournament in Brisbane, said the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine had made it tough to play over the last couple of years.

“It’s tough emotionally to play, but the worst thing is you feel like you were already accepting this, what is happening,” she added.

“And people are starting to forget about what is going on …”

Ukrainian hopes of a third woman in the quarter-finals to join Yastremska and Marta Kostyuk were dashed in only three games on Margaret Court Arena after Elina Svitolina suffered a back spasm and was unable to continue.

Czech world number 50 Noskova, who did the most damage to the top half of the draw by removing world number one Iga Swiatek in the third round, will face Yastremska in what is also her first major quarter-final.

Svitolina left the court in tears but said she would be cheering on her compatriots in the quarter-finals.

“I don’t want to look this as a missed opportunity, especially right now when it was not about my tennis today,” the 19th seed said.

“It was just my body just shut down, unfortunately.”

‘PRETTY DEAD’

Medvedev made a bit of a meal of closing out his match but stormed across the line 6-3 7-6(4) 5-7 6-1 against Portugal’s Nuno Borges to set up a clash with Pole Hubert Hurkacz.

The Russian said he had started to feel the impact of the marathon second-round match that finished in the early hours of Friday when Borges came back at him in the third set.

“Before this match I was feeling 100% but he made me run. That’s why I missed so much in the third set, I was pretty dead,” he said.

“In the fourth set I managed to raise my energy levels and now I’m tired again. One day off before the next match, I should be okay.”

Medvedev has gone onto reach the final on both of the previous occasions when he got into the last eight in Melbourne but has yet to add to his single Grand Slam title at the 2021 U.S. Open.

Ninth seed Hurkacz brought an end to wildcard Arthur Cazaux’s hot run on his Melbourne Park debut, beating the Frenchman at his own game by serving slightly bigger and slightly better in a 7-6(6) 7-6(3) 6-4 win on John Cain Arena.

Second seed Carlos Alcaraz later takes on Miomir Kecmanovic, looking to lock up a spot in his first Australian Open quarter-final and take another step on a path that the 20-year-old hopes will lead to a final against another Serb, Novak Djokovic.