Gauff v Sabalenka, Yastremska v Zheng: Australian Open semi-finals – live
Key events
That is good and ultimately unexpected news. Kyrgios was a lot of fun in his commentary, and one thing that comes through is his love for the game, so it makes perfect sense that he decides he still has things to do.
Circumstances can also influence our first match. If it’s cloudy but not raining, the roof will be open and conditions will be slower, which could make it harder for Sabalenka by slowing her down… or could mean her extra strength is even more important because it Gauff is more difficult to generate in response to this.
It’s a gray day in Melbourne, but it’s also a multi-colored day because it’s Pride Day. What a great innovation that is.
Preamble
In the 1988 FA Cup semi-finals, Nottingham Forest were drawn to play Liverpool, while Luton Town faced Watford. Which at first glance has nothing to do with our Australian Open semi-finals in 2024.
But here comes the segment! Luton and Watford were poor links from whom no one expected anything, while Forest and Liverpool were fantastic teams, two of the best three in the country at the time; their match was widely touted as the final before the final, and for good reason.
Only it was Wimbledon that won the cup, which taught us once again that life, and sports in particular, do not do what we expect of them. So we shouldn’t simply expect that whoever wins this morning, Aryna Sbalenka and Coco Gauff, will simply stroll to the title. and if retro football isn’t your thing, just ask poor Ons Jabeur, who defeated Sabalenka in the Wimbldeon semi-final, but lost her long-awaited coronation of a final to unseeded Markéta Vondrousová – who defeated unseeded Elina Svitolina to get there.
But Coco Gauff vs. Aryna Sabalenka, what a match! Gauff has improved tremendously over the past year, much better at concealing her forehand than before, but perhaps the biggest change has been a mental one. She now enters these matches expecting to triumph, having come from behind to beat Sabalenka in the US Open final.
However, Sabalenka is the defending champion, her fearsome power and developing hands making for a brutal night for all. Her ferocity in dismantling Barbora Krejcikova was almost difficult to watch, but was of course fantastic to watch, and she could hardly come into this match in better form.
There is always a problem, though: Sabalenka is brilliant at destroying the lesser lights to reach the last four of the Slams – eight in a row now – but has only one final to show for it. It’s not that easy to bully the bigger girls, and it won’t be that easy for her to bully Gauff – although we can bet she’ll try.
Our second match appears to be, as the late John Motson once said, ‘among the also-rans’. Dayana Yastremska is a qualifier who failed a drug test in 2021 before later being cleared. It’s impossible to imagine the pain and frustration that must have brought – in 2021, then a promising youngster, she traveled to Melbourne and quarantined in a hotel room for two weeks before discovering that her provisional ban would not be abolished. So for her this is relief and redemption after a long struggle, which means everyone who plays her does too. It is absolutely not to be taken lightly.
And we can be sure that Qinwen Zheng knows that. She is on the brink of immortality, hoping to become the first Chinese to win a major since Li Na, who won Australia in 2014. But with big opportunities comes big pressure, and while she’s handled them well so far, it’s been clear for a few rounds that these are the moments of her life – no matter what happens here, her being will never be the same. are. This is going to be great!