Magda Linette has won all four victories over Top 10 opponents so far in Grand Slam tournaments. The latter was recorded a few days ago when she eliminated the French Caroline Garcia (4th WTA) in the 1/8 finals. Her fans dreamed that she would add the fifth on Thursday, defeating the fifth on the world list Aryna Sabalenka. A significant obstacle, however, was the form currently presented by the 24-year-old from Minsk. As a result, beating her on Thursday was definitely an “easier said than done” task. The Polish woman lost 6:7 (1-7), 2:6.
The hope of the Polish woman and her fans was added by the fact that she had played the tournament of her life in Melbourne so far and sent home higher ranked rivals. However, the problem is that since the beginning of the season for the Belarusian, there are no strong ones. The 18-0 record in sets prior to the Australian Open semi-final was no accident. Now she added two more on the winning side.
One of the questions before Thursday’s match was whether the demons from the previous season would return to Sabalenka. It was then that her game wavered enormously, and the main problem was double faults. She made lots of them. At the same time, she set an infamous record – there were as many as 398 of them in total.
Additionally, she may have been weighed down by the fact that her three previous Grand Slam promotion attempts had been unsuccessful. In Melbourne, she told reporters that she was calmer now. “I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing my game lacked,” she said. And she added that the duel with Linette will be a great test for her in this respect.
At the very beginning, she still lacked the confidence that the Polish woman had, but this state of affairs did not last long. With the opponent leading 2:0 in the first set, the favorite improved her accuracy, which, combined with the huge power of her hit, made Linette run after the ball all over the court.
The tennis player, who had never made it past the third round of a Grand Slam before, showed a lot of calmness and maturity in Melbourne. Before the semi-final, she said with a smile that the fact that the previous duel with the Belarusian – in the 1st round of the Olympics in Tokyo – could not work out at all. – Thanks to this, she did not find out how I really play – the 30-year-old convinced journalists.
And the fact that on Thursday she was pulling aces from her sleeve. But they only allowed her to put up a very tight fight in the first set and put herself up a bit in the second. She hoped to annoy her rival, but she did her own thing. At the end of the inaugural part, the Polish player started to speed up the game too much, making mistakes.
In the second part, she had several actions, after which the audience strongly supported her. And she supported it, the more that Sabalenka’s advantage became more and more visible. When in the third game she sent a strong ball into the corner, Linette just leaned helplessly. She received great applause for defending three match balls, but then only applause left her to say goodbye to the tournament.
Sabalenka will face Yelena Rybakina in Saturday’s final. The seeded 22nd Kazakhstan representative is last year’s Wimbledon champion.
Source: Sport
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