MELBOURNE: Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi rallied from a set down to topple world number two Aryna Sabalenka 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (10-8) on Margaret Court Arena in a tight contest yesterday to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time.
Having surrendered the opening set for three matches in a row, Sabalenka took a one-set lead for the first time in Melbourne but was unable to build on it as her serving issues resurfaced once again.
Kanepi was gifted a double break early in the second set with back-to-back double faults from her 23-year-old opponent and did not waste the opportunity as she cruised to a 4-0 lead before taking the set.
She was made to work for her victory after being unable to close the match from 40-0 up as Sabalenka saved four matchpoints to break back, before the pair traded holds to take the deciding set into a tiebreaker.
Kanepi will take on 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek, who beat Sorana Cirstea 5-7 6-3 6-3 earlier, for a place in the semi-finals.
In men’s action, fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas survived an attritional fourth-round battle with American Taylor Fritz, twice coming from a set behind to win 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and reach the quarter-finals.
The Greek ended Fritz’s resistance to set up a clash with Italian 11th seed Jannik Sinner when he will be seeking to reach the semi-finals here for the third time in his career.
An agitated Daniil Medvedev teed off at the chair umpire and lost his cool in the heat before steadying to claim a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (4-7), 7-5 win over Maxime Cressy and book his second Australian Open quarter-final.
&uuid=(email))