Elina Svitolina continues her great start to the season and has been through to the Australian Open quarterfinal, while Elena Rybakina suffered a round-of-16 loss.
On Monday, the Ukrainian ousted world No. 75 Veronika Kudermetova 6-4 6-1.
After Svitolina booked a quarterfinal ticket, it looked like we were set for a showdown between the world No. 27 and Rybakina at Melbourne Park.
But Madison Keys – who won Adelaide before coming to the Australian Open – delivered a big performance to upset the No. 6 seed 6-3 1-6 6-3.
When the reigning Adelaide winner and the Ukrainian meet, it will be their sixth meeting.
Heading into the match, the American leads their head-to-head 3-2 but Svitolina won their lone Australian Open meeting in 2019.
Elina Svitolina© Australian Open/Instagram – Fair Use
Svitolina impressively recovered from a slow start in the round-of-16
The former world No. 3 made actually a very slow start to the match, losing her serve twice as Kudermetova opened a 4-1 lead.
However, the Ukrainian didn’t panic and responded with three consecutive breaks to completely erase the deficit and win the opener.
While the Russian managed to serve out her opening service game and have the second set tied to one game apiece, the 2023 Wimbledon semifinalist remained unfazed and went on a five-game run to complete her two-set win.
Since this is Svitolina’s first tournament of the year, she now has a 4-0 record in 2025, having also beaten Sorana Cirstea, Caroline Dolehide and Jasmine Paolini.
“All the four matches that I played here, I’m really happy with my fitness. I’m really happy with the way I’ve been handling tough physical matches that I had. Yeah, so far so good,” the 30-year-old said.
The Ukrainian also noted that she was happy with how she was able to bounce back after a slow start versus Kudermetova.
“It was tricky today at the beginning. But I’m very proud of myself I could find my way,” the current world No. 27 said.
Tennis World USA