“At my age, I didn’t believe that I will reach the Quarterfinals!” 36-year old Kaia Kanepi STUNS Aryna Sabalenka in the Fourth Round of the 2022 Australian Open


“At my age, I didn’t believe that I will reach the Quarterfinals!” 36-year old Kaia Kanepi STUNS Aryna Sabalenka in the Fourth Round of the 2022 Australian Open

Aryna Sabalenka and Kaia Kanepi

In one of the most dramatic match of the tournament, Estonian veteran Kaia Kanepi got the better of second seed Aryna Sabalenka in three sets 5-7,6-2,7-6(10-7) to reached her maiden Australian Open quarterfinal. She has now made it to the last 8 of every major.

Sabalenka looked shaky in the start. Once again, her serve wasn’t up to the mark as she struggled to go down the ‘T’. Kanepi took advantage of that and looked very promising in the start. She even took an early lead but Sabalenka kept her calm to bounce back. She took a late break of serve and won the opening set 7-5 for the first time this tournament.

But a string of unforced errors and double faults from Sabalenka bought Kanepi back into the match. She broke Sabalenka upfront to take an early lead and played exceptionally well on her serve. She broke Sabalenka once again and took the set 6-2 to force a decider.

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Kanepi carried momentum in the third set and broke the second seed upfront. The Belarussian began serving better after that but was struggling to get the break back. Kanepi served for the match and had three match points at 5-4, 40-0 but couldn’t hold her nerve to cross the finishing line. Sabalenka needed two break points to come back into the match as a deciding 10-point tie-breaker was needed to settle things.

Kanepi regrouped herself and took a mini-break’s lead and capitalized it after the change of ends. A string of unforced errors from a frustrated Sabalenka once again cost her as she lost her serve once again. On her 5th match point, Kanepi finally wrapped things up to win the match.

‘I thought I was gonna lose the match’: Kanepi

Kaia Kanepi
Kaia Kanepi

In the on court interview, Kanepi expressed her excitement and thanked the limited crowd. She then revealed that after losing three match points, she actually thought that she was going to lose the match.

“Thank you for the support, it was great and it helped a lot. Of course she played incredible. Very tough match- actually I thought I’m gonna lose it after the match points I had on my serve and it was really difficult to come back. I don’t know how I managed to win, but I got the win and that’s what matters,” she said.

Kanepi was reached the quarterfinal of every slam expect the Australian Open. She then said that she never thought she was going to reach the last 8 Down Under at the age of 36.

“Australian Open was the only grand slam quarterfinal that was missing and at my age I didn’t actually believe that I will do it. So yeah, I’m really happy!” she concluded.

The Estinian will now take on 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinal on Wednesday.

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