“It’s really dream come true,” Magda Linette turns emotional after sealing her maiden Grand Slam semifinal spot following her victory over Karolina Pliskova in Australian Open

The Polish 30-year-old says 'it's a dream come true' after making it to her first semifinal of a Grand Slam event after defeating Karolina Pliskova.


“It’s really dream come true,” Magda Linette turns emotional after sealing her maiden Grand Slam semifinal spot following her victory over Karolina Pliskova in Australian Open

Magda Linette, Karolina Pliskova

Polish tennis player Magda Linette is having a fairytale-like journey in the 2023 Australian Open. The 30-year-old made it to the semifinals after upsetting former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5 to reach the first major semifinal of her career. Before this, her previous best was third-round appearances on multiple occasions. 

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Linette, who had lost seven of nine previous matches against Pliskova took less than 90 minutes to the door to the Czech opponent. In the 30th main draw of her career, Linette is keeping the Polish flag high after the exit of World No.1 Iga Swiatek. With the victory, she became the third Polish woman in the Open Era to make the Australian Open semifinals. 

Before the start of the match, Pliskova was the heavy favorite to win the match given her dominance in the head-to-head. But the unseeded Linette had some other plans for Pliskova this time. Linette was broken in the first game of the match but that was her only loss of serve all day. Linette did not need to sweat out for the rest of the first set. In the second set, there was some resistance from Pliskova but Linette eventually sealed her fate. 

Related: Victoria Azarenka slams journalist for mistranslating her comments after big win over Jessica Pegula at Australian Open

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Magda Linette’s ‘dream come true’ moment

Magda Linette (Image: Eurosport)

The Pole was very happy with her performance but in a bit of disbelief too. Earlier, Linette defeated Anett Kontaveit, Ekaterina Alexandrova, and WTA Finals champion Caroline Garcia in successive rounds. Thus Pliskova was her fourth consecutive seeded victim.  

“It’s so much and I can’t really believe it,” Linette said after the match. “It’s really dreams come true. We keep going, though, I don’t want to get too excited because we’re still in the tournament, but I’m super grateful and happy,” she continued. 

Emphasizing how important this win was for her she said emotionally, “I will never forget this, I’m breaking through some really difficult things for me. This will stay with me for life. So I’m really grateful.” Pliskova will now lock horns with the winner of the quarterfinal between Aryna Sabalenka and Donna Vekic on Thursday at Rod Laver Arena. 

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