MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Jessica Pegula defeated fellow American Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 7-6 (1) on Wednesday to advance to the Australian Open semifinals and a match against Elena Rybakina.
Pegula also beat Madison Keys, another American and the defending champion, in her previous match to advance to the quarterfinals.
In the earlier quarterfinal at Rod Laver Arena, Rybakina defeated Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 to prevent the Polish player from completing
a career Grand Slam of singles titles.
Pegula is looking for her first Grand Slam title while Rybakina is after her second after winning Wimbledon in 2022. In the other semifinal Thursday, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka will play Elina Svitolina.
Pegula was almost perfect in winning the first set and closed it out with an ace. The second set was much closer with each breaking the other twice.
Swiatek is a four-time French Open champion and has won the U.S. Open and Wimbledon. She was trying to become the 11th woman to complete a career Grand Slam.
The first set took an hour and Rybakina broke Swiatek in the final game. The second was almost the opposite.
Rybakina, who was born in Russia but represents Kazakhstan, broke her Polish opponent twice to start the set and moved to a 3-0 lead. She served two aces to go ahead 4-1, broke in the sixth game and finished the match with an ace.
The two played each other five times last season.
“We know each other pretty well,” Rybakina said. "In the first set for both of us, the first serve was not really working so we were trying to step in on the second serve and put pressure on the other.
“In the second I just started to play more freely and served better,” Rybakina added. "For now the serve is really helping, so hopefully I can continue like this.”
The final two men’s quarterfinals are also on tap for Wednesday with Lorenzo Musetti playing 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and Ben Shelton up against two-time defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner.
The winners will play each other in the semifinals. No. 1-ranked Carlos Alcaraz will face Alexander Zverev in the other semi on Friday.
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