Marta Kostyuk came back from one set down to upset last year’s Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-3 in 2 hours and 21 minutes and reached the quarter final at the Adelaide International.
Kostyuk came came through the qualifying round in Adelaide with straight set wins over Cristina Bucsa and Mayar Sherif before beating Australian wild card Jaimee Fourlis in over two hours.
Kostyuk hit 36 winners to just 16 unforced errors and dropped her serve once. She broke Rybakina, who had beaten Danielle Collins in the openin round.
Both players went on serve without earning a break point in the first set. Kostyuk earned an early mini-break to take a 2-0 lead. Rybakina won seven of the next ten points including two mini-break points to win the tie-break 7-5, but she served at just 33% in the second set and 55% in the third set. Kostyuk broke twice in the second and eighth games to win the second set 6-2. The Ukrainian player dropped her serve in the first game of the third set, but she broke straight back to draw level to 1-1.
Kostyuk earned her second break in the fourth game and sealed the win on her first match point in the ninth game.
Kostyuk will face either two-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur or Sorana Cristea in the quarter final on Friday.
Veronika Kudemertova beat Bianca Andreescu 6-4 6-0 in her opening match of the season setting up a quarter final match against either Jelena Ostapenko or Irina Camelia Begu. Kudemertova came back from 0-4 down to win 12 straight games against Andreescu.
Aryna Sabalenka battled past Liudmila Samsonova 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (7-3) avenging his recent defeat against her Russian rival, who had won their most recent head-to-head match at the Guadalajara Open last November.
Samsonova earned a double break to open up a 5-1 lead in the first set. Sabalenka saved seven set points to win the tie-break 10-8 in 80 minutes after a marathon first set. Samsonova earned her first four set points, as Sabalenka was serving at 5-3. The Russian brought up another set point on her serve at 5-4.
In the tie-break Samsonova came back from 1-4 down and saved Sabalenka’s first set point at 7-6. Sabalenka converted her second set point at 9-8 with a forehand return winner.
Sabalenka earned the first break in the opening game of the second set. Samsonova broke back in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Neither player faced a break point in the next eight games. Sabalenka earned two mini-breaks to take a 4-1 lead. Samsonova clawed her way back to 3-4, but Sabalenka won the final three points to close out the second tie-break 7-3.
