The Pole, 45th in the world, qualified for the semi-finals of the Australian Open by beating the Czech Karolina Pliskova (31st) 6-3, 7-5, Wednesday in Melbourne.
Linette, who had never passed the third round in a Grand Slam, will face Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (5th) or Croatian Donna Vekic (64th) on Thursday for a place in the final. After the elimination of world No.1 Iga Swiatek in the round of 16, there will still be a Polish woman in the last four of the Australian Major. Linette, whose best ranking so far had been 33rd, will enter the WTA Top 30 on Monday.
On Wednesday, after an exchange of breaks in the first two games of the game, she seized on a drop in efficiency from Pliskova on her serve to score a white break and come away 4-2, then 5-2. She then served for the win of the first set at 5-3 and, after saving a break point, she concluded on her first set point.
In the second set, Pliskova tried to get to the net but she was picked too often (five times out of seven) to change the course of the game. Especially since she committed a total of 36 unforced errors (against 16 for Linette) and could not rely completely on her serve, one of her main weapons (seven double faults in total) .
The Czech first saved three break points at 3-3, but at 5-5, she committed two double faults in a row to bring Linette two break points on a plateau and offered it to her on a fault straight away. The Polish, she did not fail to conclude on her next service game.