Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula pulled off upsets in the Australian Open quarterfinals, defeating top seeds Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova, respectively.
Second-seeded Swiatek, who has never won the Australian Open title, her only Grand Slam, lost 7-5, 6-1 after sixth-seeded Rybakina took advantage of her error-filled shots.
The 24-year-old Polish player made 25 unforced errors and hit just 10 winners. Rybakina, 26, had a solid ground game with 25 winners and 19 unforced errors.
“I’m really happy with the win,” Rybakina said in an on-court interview. “I was just trying to stay aggressive because we know each other so well.
“In the first set, both of our first serves weren’t going well, so we were trying to step in with our second serves and put pressure on each other.
“In the second set, I played more freely and served better. I’m really happy with the win.”
Rybakina reached the semifinals of a major tournament for the first time since reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2024. She has reached two Grand Slam finals in her career, winning Wimbledon in 2022 and losing in the title match at the 2023 Australian Open.
After Swiatek and Rybakina exchanged breaks of serve in the first two games, Rybakina fought off three break points at 1-1 and broke serve in the 12th game to take the set.
Rybakina won the first three games of the second set and cruised to the finish without facing a single break point in the set.
Pegula surprises fellow American Anisimova and makes open gill history
Meanwhile, sixth-seeded Pegula dominated fourth-seeded Anisimova, a fellow American and two-time Grand Slam finalist, to book her spot in the semifinals.
The 31-year-old from Buffalo defeated Anisimova 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) to become the first female player in the Open Era (since 1968) to reach three major semifinals at age 30.
After Pegula comfortably won the first set against the 24-year-old Anisimova, neither player broke serve in the first seven games of the second set.
Anisimova made a successful break to take a 5-3 lead, but was unable to serve out as Pegula broke back. After Pegula broke again to take a 6-5 lead, Anisimova responded in kind to force a tiebreak.
After Anisimova took the lead in the tiebreaker, Pegula scored seven consecutive points to advance.
Pegula said: “I was thinking, ‘It’s almost there, you’ll see. Next round I have to go to the semi-finals’ because I feel like I’m playing really good tennis here and I like the conditions.”
“And even in the game we lost here, I always felt like I played well. So I was just waiting for the moment to break through.”
Pegula and Rybakina have been separated by six career matches, with the Kazakhstani most recently meeting at the WTA Finals last fall.
If Pegula wins on Thursday, she will advance to her second major final of her career.
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