Yastremska soars into Australian Open quarter-finals, Svitolina bows out

Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska has reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time in her career, beating neutral player Victoria Azarenka. Elina Svitolina, on the other hand, ended her performance at the tournament early, as she was unable to finish her fourth round match against Czech player Linda Nosková due to an injury.

Source: "Suspilne Sport";  BTU (Big Tennis of Ukraine)

Details: Ukraine has secured its second representative in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open 2024 as Dayana Yastremska knocked out neutral player Victoria Azarenka from Belarus.

Yastremska was one of three Ukrainians to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open 2024. Earlier, Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk defeated "neutral" Russian Maria Timofeeva, securing a spot in the tournament's quarter-finals in Australia for the first time in her career.

Yastremska, who began her campaign in the qualification rounds, beat her seventh opponent from the tournament. This time, it was Azarenka, whom Dayana faced for the fourth time (with a 2-1 advantage for the "neutral" Belarusian). 

The match between Yastremska and Azarenka lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes. Yastremska played aggressively, finishing the encounter with 38 winners and making 37 unforced errors.

Details: After the second game in the fourth round, Svitolina called a physio onto the court, pointing to issues with her back. After a medical timeout, the Ukrainian lost a game on her serve and decided to withdraw from the match. 

Her opponent, Linda Nosková, will play in the quarter-finals of a major for the first time in her career and will compete against Yastremska.

Svitolina later explained that she had experienced a sudden back spasm.

Quote: "I had a spasm, or I don't know exactly what it was, but it was a shooting pain that I felt in the first game, during the last two points. I couldn't do anything. My back completely seized up. Of course, it's very sad (...). 

My back just locked up. My entire lower back is completely locked. So yes, it hurts a lot even to walk, and turn around. I can't move from side to side. It's a very strange feeling."

Details: Svitolina says that she had felt some pain right in the first game. 

"I felt it a bit, but it's quite normal. I've already played some tennis in this tournament, so you know, by the fourth round, sometimes you feel a bit of a twinge," she explained. 

The Ukrainian says she hadn't had any specific problems and had never experienced such shooting pain before. 

"I've had some back issues before, where I just felt tired the next day after a match, but this was really out of nowhere. It felt like someone had shot me in the back," the tennis player said.

Svitolina hopes that it's a short-term problem and that she can return to training, perhaps within a week. "Of course, I have a long flight ahead – and that doesn't help. In a sense, I'll have to take it one day at a time, recover, get scans done as soon as I get home, and move on. I hope there's nothing serious," she said.

Note: Elina Svitolina was fighting for her third quarter-final at the Australian Open and the first since 2019. Previously, she has reached the quarter-finals ten times in Grand Slam tournaments. Her best results in this series remain the semi-finals at Wimbledon (2019, 2023) and the US Open (2019).

At the Australian Open, Elina Svitolina has defeated Taylah Preston, Viktoriya Tomova, and Viktorija Golubic. This is the third time in her career and the first time since 2019 that the Ukrainian has not been able to finish her match due to injury.

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