Australian Open 2024 Highlights: Qinwen Zhang defeats Dayana Yastremska to reach maiden Grand Slam final

Published at :January 25, 2024 at 4:07 PM

Modified at :January 27, 2024 at 1:48 AM

Hello and welcome to Khel Now’s live blog for the Dayana Yastremska vs Qinwen Zheng Live semi-final match in Australian Open 2024. Please wait for the blog to load.

Twelfth seed Zheng Qinwen will face World No.91 Dayana Yastremska in the women’s singles semifinals of Australian Open 2024 on Thursday (January 25). Yastremska, 23, has scripted history by becoming only the fifth qualifier in the Open Eta to reach the semi-final stage of a Grand Slam in women’s singles.

Zheng, 21, on the other hand, is the youngest Chinese player in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam semi-final surpassing Zheng Jie, who held the record previously after reaching Wimbledon 2008 semis at 24 years and 362 days.

She had shown glimpses of blossoming into a serious contender on the women’s tour with title wins at Palermo Ladies Open and Zhengzhou Open as well as a runners-up finish at the Zhuhai Tennis Championships. The WR-13 Chinese also reached the US Open quarterfinals last year and has now achieved her best-ever performance so far at tennis majors.

Seeded 12 at Melbourne Park, Zheng saw off Ashlyn Krueger, Katie Boulter, Wang Yafan and Oceane Dodin to enter the Australian Open 2024 quarterfinals, before beating Anna Kalinskaya 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1 to make the semis.

Likewise, this is also Ukrainian Yastremska’s best-ever outing at Grand Slams. But she had to take a different route to get here.

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Having arrived at the Australian Open after an opening round exit in Brisbane, the 23-year-old faced the seventh-seeded Marketa Vondrousova and defeated her in straight sets. Yastremska then followed it up with wins over Varvara Gracheva, 27th seed Emma Navarro and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka. In the quarter-final, she defeated Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final four.

Quite contrastingly, Yastremska has dropped just one set all tournament in the main draw having dropped a set in each of her three matches in the qualifiers.

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