Dajana Jastremska stared a little in disbelief at the bottom corner of the net where the ball had caught on the other side. She then clasped her hands above her head. It took a moment before the bewilderment slowly gave way to a shy smile: for the first time in her career, the 23-year-old is in the semi-final of the Grand Slam – and to do so she needed three more matches than the competition. .
Odessa’s Dajana Jastremska reached the semifinals of the Australian Open as a qualifier. Something like this rarely happens in a Grand Slam tournament. Two and a half years ago at the US Open in New York, Britain’s Emma Raducanu was catapulted from nowhere to galactic heights. In Melbourne, however, a similar case occurred 46 years ago. In 1978, Australian Christine Dorey reached the semi-finals of her home tournament; It was, those older than her will remember, the year Martina Navratilova won the first of her nine Wimbledon titles.
“I wasn’t even born then,” Jastremska rightly said, when reminded of these great feats of a green era of lawn tennis long ago. In 1978, the Australian Open was played not on the blue hard courts of the Olympic Park in the city center, but on grass in the southern Kooyong district.
Russia’s war of aggression against her homeland made Yastremska and her family refugees
Jastremska had eight matches in two and a half weeks under her belt when she went to the net on Wednesday afternoon to shake hands with her quarter-final opponent Linda Noskova, the very talented 19-year-old Czech, after the 6:3, 6:4 victory. It took three qualifying matches just to get into the main round of the biggest tennis tournament in the southern hemisphere. And Jastremska, who four years ago was world number 21 but has since slipped to position 93, in the previous tournament had to go the full distance of three sets in each of these duels.
“All the women here can play amazing tennis,” she said, which is why she “got out of the habit of looking at the rankings.” And because she had settled in so well after qualifying, she knocked the 2022 Wimbledon winner, Kazakh number three seed Elena Rybakina, out of the tournament in her first main round match. It was the first upset of this year’s Australian Open; In the round of 16, Jastremska gave former world number one Wiktoria Asarenka, 34 years old, from Belarus, no chance. “I didn’t expect it,” she said after reaching the semi-finals: she initially wanted to use the tournament to focus on the details of the matches, especially on a mental level.
In the quarterfinals Dajana Jastremska (left) won against 19-year-old Czech Linda Noskova 6:3, 6:4.
(Photo: Louise Delmotte/dpa)
There is no doubt that he had to overcome difficult phases, both professionally and privately. In early 2021, after having already won three titles on the WTA tour, Jastremska was provisionally suspended by the World Tennis Association. Analysis of a November 2020 doping sample showed traces of mesterolone, a synthetic anabolic steroid on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (Wada) banned list. The case became known shortly before the Australian Open; Jastremska had already traveled to Melbourne.
He protested his innocence, but the Cas sports court rejected his appeal. But in June 2021, an investigative commission determined that Jastremska was not guilty or negligent and consequently revoked the suspension. “I’ve had a lot of difficulties,” he said vaguely on Wednesday, “but I don’t want to talk about it now. Maybe I can explain it later, and then maybe the story will seem different.”
Jastremska says a rocket hit her grandmother’s house in early January
What is certain is that just eight months after their return to the tennis tour, Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine. Russia’s war of aggression against her homeland made Yastremska and her family refugees. She initially moved to Lyon alone with her sister because she was playing a tournament there where she reached the final, which still surprises her today. “I had never trained before,” she said. “There were massive attacks and we had other things to think about.” Last year her mother came to France and now accompanies her on tour again, as she has always done. The escape, she said, made the family closer.
She is now the last of three Ukrainians to reach the round of 16 of this year’s Australian Open: Colleague Elina Switolina had to withdraw early due to injury in the match against Linda Noskova, who had previously beaten world number one Iga Swiatek. Marta Kostjuk lost to US Open winner Coco Gauff. Jastremska will now play in the semifinals against China’s Zheng Qinwen, who defeated Russia’s Anna Kalinskaja 6:7 (4), 6:3, 6:1.
A few days ago Dayana Yastremska said that in early January a rocket hit her grandmother’s house in Ukraine. On Wednesday, before leaving the pitch, you dedicated your victory, as always, to your compatriots. “I am proud of our fighters in Ukraine,” she wrote on the camera lens. These messages are important to her, she said, “I believe this is my mission here.”
