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Kaia Kanepi: "At my age I didn't think I could do it"
Photo: Hamish Blair/AP
Kaia Kanepi continued her surprising winning streak at the Australian Open against world number two Aryna Sabalenka.
The conqueror of Angelique Kerber prevailed against the Belarusian 5: 7, 6: 2, 7: 6 (10: 7).
The 36-year-old Estonian secured a quarter-final against former Polish French Open winner Iga Świątek, who defeated Sorana Cîrstea from Romania.
Kanepi's quarter-finals is one of Melbourne's big surprises.
She entered the tournament as number 115 in the world, and now she is in the last eight for the first time at her 13th Australian Open.
In the world rankings, you can be sure of a big leap forward.
Should she defeat Świątek, who is 16 years her junior, Kanepi would be in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her long tennis career.
Kanepi eliminated Germany's best player Kerber last Tuesday.
This was followed by victories over Marie Bouzková and Maddison Inglis.
She started with a set loss against Sabalenka in the Margaret Court Arena, but then benefited from the favorite's service problems.
Also thanks to several double mistakes in crucial moments, Kanepi scored important points.
The Estonian missed four match points, the fifth brought her victory.
"At my age I didn't think I could do it"
"After the missed match points, I thought I would lose," said Kanepi, who had reached the quarterfinals twice in each of the other three Grand Slams.
“The Australian Open was the only quarter-final in a Grand Slam that I missed.
At my age I didn't think I could do it.«
Tsitsipas trembles and wins, Medvedev complains
Among the men, co-favorite Stefanos Tsitsipas was able to avert an early failure.
In a five-set match, the fourth in the world rankings made up for deficits and defeated American Taylor Fritz 4:6, 6:4, 4:6, 6:3, 6:4.
After 3:23 hours, the 23-year-old Greek decided the round of 16 in his favour.
In the fight for a place in the semifinals, Tsitsipas is now up against the Italian Jannik Sinner.
Previously, Daniil Medvedev, who played strongly in Melbourne, had mastered his round of 16, but had some trouble.
The Russian argued with the referee, grumbled about his opponent and eventually fought his way to the quarterfinals against Maxime Cressy of the USA.
6: 2, 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 7 (4: 7), 7: 5 was the end result from the point of view of the Russian winner.
"It was an amazing match and I'm glad I'm through," said Medvedev, who now meets shooting star Felix Auger-Aliassime.
In the intense match over 3:30 hours against Cressy, he was extremely dissatisfied at times.
He complained that opponents were taking too much time before his serves and cursed supposed frame hits from Cressy, who advanced to the net 135 times.
Medvedev is the highest-ranked professional in Melbourne in the absence of world number one Novak Djoković, in last year's final he lost to Djoković in three sets.
The quarter-finals at a glance
Ladies
Ashleigh Barty - Jessica Pegula
Barbora Krejčíková - Madison Keys
Danielle Collins - Alizé Cornet
Iga Świątek - Kaia Kanepi
Men
Gaël Monfils - Matteo Berrettini
Denis Shapovalov - Rafael Nadal
Jannik Sinner - Stefanos Tsitsipas
Félix Auger-Aliassime - Daniil Medvedev
mon/dpa/Reuters
