CABRERA OUT

Lone Aussie finally meets her match

AUSTRALIAN young gun Lizette Cabrera says she will head to the Australian Open full of confidence despite her heartbreaking loss at the Hobart International to Elena Rybakina in a three-set thriller last night.

Cabrera, 22, from Queensland, had her chances to take the match off Kazakhstan’s 20year-old rising star, the world No. 30.

But the towering baseline brawler won their enthralling semi-final 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.

The Hobart crowd rode every shot from the Aussie pocket-rocket as the match went beyond 11pm, and Cabrera felt bad for letting them down.

“I’m really disappointed – I had a lot of opportunities in the match,” Cabrera said.

“She played a good match but the crowd was awesome and they really helped me in moments when I needed it.

“It sucks that I lost because not only am I disappointed but

I feel bad for everyone who was supporting me.”

Cabrera, ranked the world No.129, will have a spring in her step heading to Melbourne for the Australian Open.

“I am really excited,” she said. “I’ve gotten a lot of matches here and had a lot of

court time. I’m feeling really confident going into the AO.”

Rybakina, the tournament’s number three seed, was made to work hard for her victory.

Having won the ITF Launceston International last summer, Rybakina will now face Britain’s Heather Watson in the semi-finals at the Domain Tennis Centre in Hobart today.

“It’s my first time here in Hobart. After I won the Launceston tournament I started to play better and I won some more ITF tournaments and my ranking went up,” Rybakina said. “Here in Hobart I am focusing only on each match. I will try my best and if I can win it would be great.”

Rain delays earlier in the day meant the Cabrera-Rybakina match did not start until 8.35pm.

“We started late. It was difficult to wait so long to go out to play and it was a very tough match,” Rybakina said. “I am just happy I was able to win this match.”

In the other semi-final today, Russian Veronika Kudermetova meets China’s Shuai Zhang, who cruised into the semis with a 6-1, 6-4 win over American Lauren Davis. Zhang opened the first set winning five consecutive games until Davis got on the board in game six.

Zhang, who had a career-high ranking of 23 and sits at world No.40, closed out the first set by holding, and after Davis showed more fight in the second set, China’s two-time WTA singles titles winner confidently wrapped up the match.