MELBOURNE, Australia — Magda Linette came from two breaks down in the first set en route to beating No. 4 Caroline Garcia 7-6 (3), 6-4 at the Australian Open on Monday to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
She will face Karolina Pliskova, who defeated Zhang Shuai 6-0, 6-4 in another fourth-round match on Monday.
Linette was lost for words in the on-court interview after the match.
“I don’t really believe it,” she said. “I can’t believe it, really. I don’t know what happened. I’m speechless really. I don’t know what to say.”
Fifth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka defeated Belinda Bencic 7-5, 6-2 on Monday to reach the quarterfinals for the first time. Bencic double-faulted to drop the first set, which put Sabalenka in control from that point.
“I’m super happy with the win today,” Sabalenka said. “[Bencic] is an unbelievable player. She played so good. I’m really happy with the level today.”
Sabalenka faces Donna Vekic, who defeated Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.
Two other quarterfinal matchups were already set, with Elena Rybakina facing Jelena Ostapenko, and Jessica Pegula playing Victoria Azarenka.
Top-seeded Iga Swiatek and No. 2 Ons Jabeur have been eliminated, leaving No. 3 Pegula as the highest ranked women through to the final eight. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, this is just the fifth time in the Open Era that the Australian Open has seen exactly one of the women seeded in the Top 4 advance to the quarters. In each of the previous four instances, that lone high seed would go on to win the title.
Sabalenka said she had worked hard on controlling her emotions during matches.
“It takes me a little while to understand that negative emotions are not going to help me on court,” she said. “You just have to stay strong and believe no matter what.”
Sabalenka also said her fitness has improved.
“We did a lot of work in the preseason and I’m super happy that everything is working right now,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.