Elena Rybakina will play in the Australian Open semifinals for the first time since reaching the final in 2023 after defeating second seed Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday.
"I'm really happy with this win. We know each other pretty well, and I just tried to stay aggressive," Rybakina was quoted as saying by the WTA.
"In the first set, the first serve wasn't going well for either of us, so we tried to improve our second serve and put pressure on each other."
"In the second set, I started to play more freely, served better, and I'm very happy with this win," said the 26-year-old.
Fifth seed Rybakina prevailed in the one-hour, 35-minute match, winning eight of the final nine games, leveling her record against Swiatek at 6-6.
After being broken in the first game of the match, the player who led the WTA Tour in aces served in 2025 served brilliantly on serve -- despite hitting only 49 percent of her first serves in the match.
He managed to come back from 0-40 down at 1-1 in the first set, and lost only 12 points in the next eight service games.
Eleven of his 26 winning points were aces , and he committed only 19 unforced errors -- but 14 of those errors came in the first set, where nine of the 12 games ended in deuce.
