Tennis News: Victoria Azarenka, Linda Noskova and Irina Camelia Begu through to Adelaide One quarter-final
In the second round of the Adelaide International one, Irina-Camelia Begu, and Linda Noskova, both unseeded competitors, defeated No. seven seeds Jelena Ostapenko and Claire Liu with ease
Image credit: SALive Image Adelaide International oneThe day after defeating the Wimbledon champion, one qualifier advanced to the quarter-finals of the Adelaide International, and another was guaranteed to accomplish the same.
The 18-year-old Czech Linda Noskova, who defeated American Claire Liu 6-2, 6-2 in Round One to record her first Top 10 victory, joined Marta Kostyuk in the quarter-finals of the WTA 500 competition.
Both players made it beyond the qualifying round, but Noskova outperformed Liu in a brilliant 73-minute effort despite being around 50 ranks below in the WTA rankings than Liu.
In the quarter-finals, Noskova defeated Victoria Azarenka, the two-time Grand Slam champion and former World No. 1, by breaking service four times, maintaining her serve throughout, and hitting 20 winners.
It was a brilliant day for unseeded players as Irina-Camelia Begu beat No. seven seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-0 to advance alongside Noskova to the final eight.
Begu fell behind 3-1 in the first set before claiming 11 straight games to tie the Latvian in their first hard-court match at 1-1. Begu triumphed on clay in Madrid five years prior, but Ostapenko exacted revenge at Wimbledon the previous year.
Victoria Azarenka advances to the Adelaide quarter-finals for the second time in a row
Experience won the battle between youth and experience. In the second round, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka defeated Zheng Qinwen 6-2, 7-5.
Azarenka managed to withstand a barrage of eleven aces from the 20-year-old phenom while putting forth constant return pressure. Azarenka generated 11 break points and broke four times during the one-hour, forty-minute match, while Zheng only had two.
