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01/27 22:43 CST Pegula beats fellow American Anisimova to reach the Australian
Open semifinals
Pegula beats fellow American Anisimova to reach the Australian Open semifinals
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) --- Jessica Pegula defeated fellow American Amanda
Anisimova 6-2, 7-6 (1) on Wednesday to advance to the Australian Open
semifinals and a match against Elena Rybakina.
Pegula also beat Madison Keys, another American and the defending champion, in
her previous match to advance to the quarterfinals.
In the earlier quarterfinal at Rod Laver Arena, Rybakina defeated Iga Swiatek
7-5, 6-1 to prevent the Polish player from completing a career Grand Slam of
singles titles.
Pegula is looking for her first Grand Slam title while Rybakina is after her
second after winning Wimbledon in 2022. In the other semifinal Thursday,
top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka will play Elina Svitolina.
Pegula was almost perfect in winning the first set and closed it out with an
ace. The second set was much closer with each breaking the other twice.
Swiatek is a four-time French Open champion and has won the U.S. Open and
Wimbledon. She was trying to become the 11th woman to complete a career Grand
Slam.
The first set took an hour and Rybakina broke Swiatek in the final game. The
second was almost the opposite.
Rybakina, who was born in Russia but represents Kazakhstan, broke her Polish
opponent twice to start the set and moved to a 3-0 lead. She served two aces to
go ahead 4-1, broke in the sixth game and finished the match with an ace.
The two played each other five times last season.
"We know each other pretty well," Rybakina said. "In the first set for both of
us, the first serve was not really working so we were trying to step in on the
second serve and put pressure on the other.
"In the second I just started to play more freely and served better," Rybakina
added. "For now the serve is really helping, so hopefully I can continue like
this."
The final two men's quarterfinals are also on tap for Wednesday with Lorenzo
Musetti playing 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and Ben Shelton up
against two-time defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner.
The winners will play each other in the semifinals. No. 1-ranked Carlos Alcaraz
will face Alexander Zverev in the other semi on Friday.
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