Edited By: Vivek Ganapathy
Last Updated: January 25, 2023, 18:11 IST
Magda Linette of Poland celebrates after defeating Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in their quarterfinal match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
The 30-year-old Pole booked her place in the last four of the Melbourne Park event as she got the better of Czech star Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals
Magda Linette sealed her spot in the final four of the women’s singles event in the year’s first grand slam, the Australian Open, at Melbourne as she got the better of Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5 in the last eight stage of the Melbourne Park tournament.
Linette was sidelined for a five-month long period following an undiagnosable knee injury back in the year 2021 said that her achievement of making the semi-final of the grand slam event down under a dream come true following the tumultuous times she had to endure after pulling out of the very same tournament one week before the start of last year’s edition.
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She had been experiencing some discomfort ahead of the major curtain raiser for the previous year but had to pull her name out of contention as the pain got to unbearable levels.
And much to the disgruntlement of the Pole, for eleven long weeks, no one was able to diagnose the injury of its severity. Eventually, it was found to be an issue with her meniscus and the resulting surgery kept her out of action for a period of five months.
She had to endure a challenging year after her comeback as the results weren’t something to write home about. The year 2022 seemed better, but was void of any silverware.
But, to the delight of the 30-year-old Pole, who had to suffer sliding down the rankings and had to adapt a cautious approach so as to not trigger any recursion of her nightmarish injury, her hard work and determination through bleak times yielded dividends as she moved into the final four of the calendar year’s first major.
“I think it couldn’t be really worse, right? I honestly didn’t play for five months”, Linette said.
“I was dropping my ranking and dropping points during the pandemic time. I didn’t really want to freeze my ranking, because that would mean another month for me to be out of competition”, she explained.
“I was just worried I’m going to go out of 100, and I wasn’t sure if I can really do it”, Linette reflected on her testing times after she registered her landmark win over Czech Pliskova.
“I felt, look, I’m not that young anymore. If I drop out, I need to go a level down to ITF. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she continued.
Linette will face off against Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinal while Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and Victoria Azarenka will battle it out in the other las four engagement on Thursday for a place in the summit clash on Saturday.
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