 "Australian Open 2024: Dayana Yastremska on Ukraine 'mission' as qualifier reaches semi-finals")
Dayana Yastremska booked her place in the semi-finals of the Australian Open after beating Linda Noskova on Wednesday. The 23-year-old notched her eighth win in Melbourne in the last three weeks in a clash between two unseeded women on the Rod Laver Arena. Yastremska is into the semi-finals of a major for the first time. Her previous best performance at a Grand Slam was making the third round of the 2019 US Open. “I was working on some things that is a little bit, like, personal, you know,” she said on her goal at the Australian Open. “It was more associating with my head and with the way I feel on court. “I wasn’t really putting the goal, you know, to go quarters, fourth round, semis or whatever. I was just trying to enjoy playing here.” The Ukrainian, ranked 93 in the world, became the fifth qualifier in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, and the second to do it at the Australian Open since Christine Dorey in 1978. Three of the qualifying surges to the last-four have come in this decade: Emma Raducanu clinched the 2021 US Open as a qualifier and Nadia Podoroska reached the semis at 2020 French Open. “It’s nice to make history, because at that time I wasn’t even born,” she said.
The Ukrainian said her mission at the Australian Open was to show pride in her war-torn home . The 23-year-old wrote a message of support for Ukrainian fighters involved in the war against Russia on a TV camera lens after her win. “I’m very proud of them,” she said. “They really deserve huge respect. I always try to write something for Ukraine, about Ukraine. “I think it’s my mission here. If I do well, I can get – tough to express. I’m just trying to give the signal to Ukraine that I’m really proud of it.”
The Odessa native is the second Ukrainian, after Elina Svitolina, to contest a major semi-final, when she faces one of Zheng Qinwen or Anna Kalinskaya. Yastremska, who reached career high of World No 21 in January 2020, is the lowest ranked woman remaining in the draw. She dropped down the ladder for failing a dope test. But that ban was subsequently lifted after an independent tribunal accepted that her positive test was the result of contamination. At the Australian Open, all five of her main draw wins have come against players ranked higher than her. In qualifying she was taken the distance in all three of her matches.
Yastremska said she had a wide array of interests outside tennis, including fashion and music. “In February I hope that one new song will come out,” she said. “It’s not just mine. It’s going be three of us, three different countries, that we, you know, got together and we made a nice song. “I’m not going to talk much about it. You’re going to hear it soon, I hope.” Run at the 2024 Australian Open: 1st round: beat Wimbledon champion and seventh seed Marketa Vondrousova 2nd round: beat Varvara Gracheva 3rd round: beat Emma Navarro 4th round: beat two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka QF round: beat Linda Noskova, who beat Iga Swiatek Quick bio: Current ranking: 93 Career high ranking: 21 Titles: 3 (2019 Hua Hin, 2019 Strasbourg, 2018 Hong Kong) Prize money: $3,255,888 W/L record in singles: 214-150 Nominated for 2019 WTA Newcomer of the Year Became first woman born in the 2000s to crack the top-100 on the WTA rankings, debuting at No. 100 (July 16, 2018)