Rybakina sails to semifinals
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina advanced to the Australian Open semifinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday.
The match at Rod Laver Arena featured a rare rain delay of about 20 minutes while the roof was closed. Rybakina led 3-1 and was holding a break point before the delay. On return, Ostapenko saved the first break point, but Rybakina broke on her next opportunity to go up 4-1 and won the first set 6-2.
In the second set, Ostapenko was up a break but Rybakina leveled with a break of her own. It came on her first break point when Ostapenko had been unable to convert four in the previous game.
Rybakina, who beat topseeded Iga Swiatek in the fourth round, set up match points with aces, both of which were saved by Ostapenko. But she clinched the match with another ace, her 11th of the match and a tournamentleading 35 overall.
“I was nervous in the last game, but I managed my emotions and played very well,” Rybakina said. “The conditions were different after the roof was closed. But it can happen here, you never know, on the morning one weather and later it changes.”
Rybakina will play the winner of the night quarterfinal between American Jessica Pegula, at No. 3 the highest women’s seed remaining, and two-time champion Victoria Azarenka.
In the men’s quarterfinals, 22-year-old American Sebastian Korda retired with a wrist injury in the third set against No. 18seeded Karen Khachanov. In a late quarterfinal, thirdseeded Stefanos Tsitsipas was set to face Jiri Lehecka. The winners will play each other in the semifinals Friday.
Djokovic feels good, gets to quarterfinals
It took about a week for Novak Djokovic to go from worrying about whether he simply could play a match at all on his injured left hamstring to thinking he can win the Australian Open.
And one pain-free performance Monday in overwhelming 22nd-seeded Alex de Minaur 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals for the 13th time made a world of difference.
“Tonight, the way I played, the way I felt, gives me reason now to believe that I can go all the way,” Djokovic said.
“I mean, I always believe I can go all the way, in terms of my tennis,” said Djokovic, who looked like his usual flexible, court-covering self at Rod Laver Arena.
“But the way my leg felt before tonight wasn’t giving me too many hopes, so to say, for the entire tournament, to go all the way through. Tonight I feel that, so I feel positive about it.”
Djokovic won 42 of 64 points that lasted five shots or more. He accumulated a 26-9 edge in winners. He won all 12 of his service games, never facing a break point. Generally considered the best returner in the game now — and, perhaps, ever — Djokovic earned a dozen break chances and converted half.