A good 15 months after her French Open title, Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek has the chance of her second Grand Slam final at the Australian Open.
With the hard-fought 4: 6, 7: 6 (7: 2), 6: 3, the top ten player ended the surprising winning streak of Estonian Kaia Kanepi in the quarterfinals in Melbourne on Wednesday.
After 3:01 hours, Swiatek converted her second match point and made it into the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time.
"This match was crazy," said Swiatek after the duel with a few twists: "She played so great." In 2020, the Pole amazed and made a name for herself as a teenager because she unexpectedly secured the French Open title.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the French Open was moved to autumn at the time.
"It feels incredible"
The 20-year-old kept her nerves against Kanepi even after falling behind in the set and losing a 4-1 lead in the second round.
Despite a partially unsafe serve and twelve double faults, she prevailed.
The world number 115.
Kanepi had thrown Angelique Kerber out of the tournament in Melbourne a week ago and spoiled the Kiel native's 34th birthday.
Swiatek will now play against the American Danielle Collins on Thursday to reach the final. Collins repeated her best-ever Grand Slam result from 2019 when she also made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open. With 7:5, 6:1 she defeated the unseeded French player Alizé Cornet in the surprise quarterfinals and first match of this tournament day. Cornet was in the top eight for the first time at her 63rd Grand Slam tournament.
It is also a special success for Collins because of health problems last year.
"It feels incredible, especially after the health challenges I had," said the world number 30. Two years ago she had dealt with Kerber in the round of 16 in Melbourne, but lost the final in the semifinals to the Czech Petra Kvitova lost.
This time, after Madison Keys, the 28-year-old was the second American to reach the semi-finals.
Keys, the 2017 US Open finalist, will fight against Australian world number one Ashleigh Barty for a place in the final on Thursday (9:30 a.m. CET / live on Eurosport).