While the other semi final sees two women who have played in multiple slam finals and won one each, the second one between Qinwen Zheng and Dayana Yastremska will see a first time finalist. Yastremska will have the opportunity to become the first Ukrainian woman to make a singles final while Zheng will be looking to move one step closer to matching the accolade achieved by her countrywoman Na Li in 2014.
Yastremska became the first qualifier to make the semi finals of the Australian Open since 1978 with her victory over Linda Noskova on Wednesday. Noskova had come into the quarter final a little cold after Elina Svitolina’s early retirement, something that the Ukrainian took advantage of. She was the aggressor in this one, hitting 19 winners to Noskova’s 6 while the unforced errors count was near identical. “It’s nice to make a history,” Yastremska said on the achievement. “I’m really happy to be in my first semifinals. I was a little bit nervous, but at the same time tired.
Twelfth seed Zheng’s continues her push towards the top, following up her US Open quarter final with at least a semi final here. She started slowly in her match against Anna Kalinskaya but took control near the end, eventually pulling through 6-7 6-3 6-1. It hasn’t always been the most convincing this fortnight from the Chinese but she will be glad to have avoided a shock loss, given she will have been favoured in all her matches so far.
There are a lot of similarities between Yastremska’s run and that of Emma Raducanu, who was the last qualifier to get this far in any slam. It has been an accomplished display of power hitting through out sprinkled with a bit of luck following her superb first round win. She will look to take the ball early and get Zheng out of her stride so it will be interesting to see if the No. 12 seed can figure things out and deal with the increased pressure as favourite to make a slam final. Zheng is the ace leader at the tournament and adding another 10 here would go a long way to helping her outlast a tricky opponent.
Prediction – Qinwen Zheng in three sets
