The journey of Linda Nosková’s life is not over yet. The 18-year-old Czech also knocked out two-time Grand Slam champion Viktoria Azarenkova 6:4, 6:7, 7:6 at the tournament in Adelaide, Australia and is already in the semifinals.
The current 102nd-ranked player entered the match with the two-time Australian Open winner and three-time New York Grand Slam finalist with a dropped serve, but quickly fought back against her opponent. And when she lost serve again in the seventh game, she immediately reacted the same way. At 5:4, she then broke the Belarusian star’s serve for the third time and won the first set after 44 minutes.
In the second act, the native of Vsetín, who was playing for the first time in her life in the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 tournament, took the lead 4:2 and served, but the former world number one managed to equalize. At 6:5 and 30:30 in her favor, Nosková had the winning ball on her racket, but she only hit it into the tape. Instead of a match point, Azarenkova quickly equalized and managed the subsequent tiebreak with a ratio of 7:3.
In the deciding set, Nosková even had five break points in the first game, two more during her opponent’s next serve, but she didn’t exploit even one. She only succeeded in the ninth game, taking the lead 5: 4 and serving to win the match, but she quickly lost her serve. In the next game, she had a break point again, but she didn’t convert it and soon faced a match point from her opponent, but she deflected it and the shortened game had to be decided once again.
In it, Azarenková was leading 3:1, Nosková converted it 4:3 in her favor and reached the next match point at 6:5, but Belarus also managed it. But the Czech didn’t hesitate on her second attempt and after two hours and 58 minutes she celebrated the most important victory of her career.
Coach Tomáš Krupa’s protégé won five games in a row for the first time on the top circuit. She knocked out Anna Kalinska and Anastasia Potapova in the qualifying round, in the first round of the main competition she beat another Russian and third seed Darja Kasatkinova, and in the second round she was not stopped by American Claire Liuova.
In the semifinals, Nosková will face the winner of the fight between world number two Uns Džábirová from Tunisia and Marta Kosťuková from Ukraine.
Another Czech-Belarus match in Adelaide ended the opposite way in the quarterfinals. At her first WTA Tour tournament after nine months, Markéta Vondroušová lost to second seed Aryna Sabalenková from Belarus 3:6 and 5:7.
The 23-year-old Vondroušová had to retire last season as early as mid-April due to wrist problems, for which she was later operated on. She won two matches in Australia before being stopped by former world number two Sabalenkova.
Adelaide Tennis Tournament (Hard Court):
Women (grant of $826,837):
Singles – Quarter Finals: Noskova (Czech Republic) – Azarenkova (Bel.) 6:4, 6:7 (3:7), 7:6 (8:6), Sabalenkova (2-Bel.) – Vondrousová (Czech Republic) 6:3, 7:5, Beguová (Romania) – Kuděrmětovová (4-Russia) 7:5, 6:4.
Men (grant of $642,735):
Singles – Quarter Finals: Medvedev (3-Russia) – Khačanov (8-Russia) 6:3, 6:3, Korda (USA) – Sinner (6-It.) 7:5, 6:1, Nišioka (Japan) – Popyrin (Aust. ) 7:6 (7:4), 6:7 (8:10), 6:2.
