Noskova, Yastremska advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals after contrasting wins

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Dayana Yastremska and Linda Noskova reached their first Grand Slam quarterfinals in contrasting fashion on Monday at the

Australian Open

.

Yastremska beat two-time champion Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (6), 6-4 while 18th-ranked Svitolina was trailing Linda Noskova 3-0 when Svitolina retired with a back injury.

Azarenka served for the first set twice and had two set points at 6-5 but couldn’t take them and Yastremska won the opening set on her second chance after 74 minutes. The Ukrainian then led 3-0 in the second set but Yastremska won six of the next seven games to clinch victory, ending with 37 winners.

“I think I need to take a thousand breaths because my heart I think is going to jump out of my body,” Yastremska said.

“During the match, I was imagining how I lost already like 25 times. I was losing the tiebreak, second set I was losing, I always felt I was running behind the train. But because I’m a little bit of a fighter I think I won this match and plus the support, it was amazing."

There was no handshake

, as is the convention between Ukrainian and Russian and Belarusian players, though Yastremska raised her racket toward Azarenka.

The first game of the Noskova-Svitolina match lasted 11 minutes and contained 20 points. Noskova broke serve and held for 2-0 before Svitolina had a timeout and received treatment on her lower back.

When she resumed, the Ukrainian’s serve speed was well down and her movement appeared compromised. After being broken for a second time and fighting back tears, Svitolina shook Noskova’s hand and retired.

Noskova

beat top-ranked Iga Swiatek

in the third round.

“Obviously today was not the way I had planned to win,” she said. “I feel sort for Elina, I hope she gets very well soon.”

Later Monday, men’s No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz bids for a place in the last eight when he plays Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia. No. 3 Daniil Medvedev and No. 6 Alexander Zverev are also in action.

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AP tennis:

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