Rybakina rolls into Australian Open semifinals with win over Ostapenko

Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina has advanced to the Australian Open semifinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday.

The match on Rod Laver Arena featured a rare rain delay of about 20 minutes while the roof was closed. Rybakina led 3-1 and was holding a break point before the delay. On return, Ostapenko saved the first break point, but Rybakina broke on her next opportunity to go up 4-1 and won the first set 6-2.

Rybakina, who beat top-seeded Iga Swiatek in the fourth round, set up match points with aces, both of which were saved by Ostapenko. But she clinched the match with another ace, her 11th of the match and a tournament-leading 35 overall.

"I was nervous in the last game, but I managed my emotions and played very well." Rybakina said. "The conditions were different after the roof was closed. But it can happen here, you never know, on the morning one weather and later it changes."

The No. 22-seeded Rybakina semifinal opponent will be No. 24 Elena Victoria Azarenka.

Azarenka advances, Pegula sent packing

Azarenka — the athlete — displayed the same confident brand of take-the-ball-early, hard-hitting tennis that carried her to two Australian Open titles and the No. 1 ranking a decade ago.

That was responsible, in part, for the way she beat No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-1 to return to the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the first time since those triumphs in 2012 and 2013.

After the match, Victoria Azarenka — the person — opened up about how, away from the court in recent months, she managed to learn a new mindset by, in her words, "Trying to be neutral, not to go negative; accepting the anxiety that I have; accepting the fear that I have."

A three-time runner-up at the U.S. Open, most recently in 2020, Azarenka has always played most effectively on hard courts, and that showed again on this evening. She repeatedly got the better of lengthy exchanges of forehands and backhands; Pegula made eight of the match's first 10 unforced errors.

After some misses, Pegula would sigh, roll her eyes, slump her shoulders. She often looked into the stands at her coach, Davis Witt, to say something, including one exclamation about the ball speed: "It's so ... slow!"

"Just made it tough for me to feel like I could really pressure her," Pegula said. "Felt like she was pressuring me constantly."

Pegula, a 28-year-old from New York, was playing in the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the third year in a row but fell to 0-5 for her career at that stage in Grand Slam tournaments, with each loss in straight sets. Her parents own the NFL's Buffalo Bills, and Pegula wore a patch on her skirt during matches with the No. 3, the jersey number of player Damar Hamlin, who collapsed on the field during a game on Jan. 2.

Her exit Tuesday leaves No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka as the lone top-20 woman still in the bracket. On Wednesday, Sabalenka will play unseeded Donna Vekic in the quarterfinals, while No. 30 Karolina Pliskova faces unseeded Magda Linette.

Now 33 and a mother — she walked into the stadium wearing a jersey from Paris Saint-Germain, the favourite soccer team of her son, Leo — Azarenka, who is from Belarus, delivered big shot after big shot, raced to a 3-0 lead in 12 minutes, and never really let Pegula, a good friend, into the match.

"Leo doesn't really care so much that I'm playing here. ... Obviously, he is watching some matches, but he definitely wants his mom to be home," Azarenka said. "So a few more days here, and I'll be back."

Might make the trip with a trophy in tow if she keeps playing like this.

Ottawa's Dabrowski eliminated in 3rd round

Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski is out of the Australian Open after a third-round loss in women's doubles action.

The Ottawa native and her Mexican partner Giuliana Olmos lost 7-5, 6-2 to American Caroline Dolehide and Anna Kalinskaya of Russia in a match played Tuesday night in Melbourne.

Dabrowski and Olmos leapt out to a 4-0 lead in the first set before Dolehide and Kalinskaya stormed back for the victory.

WATCH | Ottawa's Dabrowski ousted with 3rd-round doubles loss at Australian Open:

Ottawa's Dabrowski falls in upset doubles loss at Australian Open

2 years ago

Duration 1:37

Third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and her Mexican partner Giuliana Olmos suffer a 7-5, 6-2 upset loss to American Caroline Dolehide and Anna Kalinskaya of Russia in the third round of the Australian Open.

The Canadian and her teammate hit four aces across the match but struggled with break points, winning just two of a possible eight.

Dolehide and Kalinskaya will face Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in the quarterfinals.

Dabrowski has also been eliminated from the mixed doubles competition after she and her Australian partner Max Purcell dropped a second-round matchup.

In men's action, Karen Khachanov reached his first semifinal at Melbourne Park — and made his second consecutive trip to the final four at a Grand Slam tournament, following his run at the U.S. Open last September — when 22-year-old American Sebastian Korda stopped playing in the third set because of an injured right wrist while trailing 7-6 (5), 6-3, 3-0.

Khachanov will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals.

The 18th-seeded Khachanov and No. 3 Tsitsipas meet Thursday for a spot in the men's final. Tsitsipas was a 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-4 winner over Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic. The 24-year-old from Greece is in the Australian Open semifinals for the fourth time.

"I'm feeling great with my tennis," said Tsitsipas, who was a finalist at the 2021 French Open.

"It felt different this time from any other match, but the most important thing was that I found a solution. It was a very difficult three-setter, one of the most difficult ones that I've had so far in the competition. I think Jiri had a very good tournament. He's someone who has started playing well recently and I wish him the very best for the future."