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
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.