Australian Open 2024: The women’s singles draw has been dominated by upsets, but one dream final match-up is still in play

While a tantalising semi-final looms in the bottom half between red-hot defending champion Aryna Sabalenka and US Open winner Coco Gauff, it’s a harder sell on the side that lost No.1 seed Iga Swiatek on Saturday night, British drawcard Emma Raducanu and high-profile returning mum and former champion Angie Kerber in the opening round and local favourite Ajla Tomljanovic in the next.

Which leaves, on Rod Laver Arena in Wednesday’s two remaining quarter-finals, Czech teenager Linda Noskova against Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska at noon, and Russia’s world No.75 Alina Kalinskaya versus Chinese 12th seed Qinwen Zheng leading off the night session.

The tournament director’s pick, not that one would ever be admitted, is clearly Zheng, given the vast Chinese market’s reopening after Covid-19 and the Peng Shuai scandal that moved big money WTA events off-shore.

“In the top half there’s only one standout story and that’s Zheng,’’ says experienced tournament director and former WTA, Tennis Australia and Australian Open executive Peter Johnston.

“We can really go hard on the Asia Pacific (connection). We’re gonna be on CCTV5, which guarantees a massive China audience. ‘The Queen’ is a genuine star. Li Na, who won here in 2014 and put Chinese tennis on the map, is here for the Legends’ event.

“You’ve got so much to dine out on that as the dream finalist on that side. And there’ll always be stories that emerge, but other than that we’re clutching a little bit now, I think it’s probably fair to say.’’

Which also means that, with all respect to the plucky Marta Kostyuk, who put Gauff through a gruelling three-setter for more than three hours in the heat of Tuesday afternoon, the fact that the charismatic Floridian who has inherited the American superstar crown from the Williams sisters just reached her first Australian Open semi-final had to be the marketing department’s preferred result.

“Gauff’s prime time ESPN, she is the next story after the Williamses in the US, she’s a current US Open titleholder, she’s 19,’’ says Johnston. “She’s the whole global package.’’

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Headlines and boilovers in the first week necessarily deplete the stocks of household names for the second, and so it is for the top half of the women’s draw in 2024.

“A lot of the stories that were getting trumpeted early, it was all about the plethora of mothers coming back, and then we lost two more on Monday, with (Elina) Svitolina and (Victoria) Azarenka,’’ says Johnston, Naomi Osaka having fallen into the bottom half, but, courtesy of Caroline Garcia, fallen in the first round.

“Then the young guns emerged — we had the three 16-year-olds on Rod Laver in one day — but departed, and we haven’t really had the Aussie story outside of Storm Hunter, and the one win for Tomljanovic.’’

Which leaves Swiatek-slaying Noskova among the three lesser-knowns joining Zheng as candidates for the last four, but the highest ranked of the non-Chinese trio at No.50, and the leader of the next generation emerging from the remarkable Czech women’s production line.

“It’s the first grand slam of the year. It’s obviously very tough for everyone, especially for the seeded players to kind of stand their ground and play what they should and all that stuff,’’ said Noskova, who grew up admiring Serena Williams and whose fourth top 10 scalp came with Svitolina’s injury retirement after just three games.

“Obviously there has been a lot of shocking results in men’s or women’s draws. So, I mean, the players that are there right now are amazing, so it will be really tough match next and hopefully the next ones, as well.’’

Noskova’s will be against the bubbly Yastremska, who confessed her fatigued state after toppling Azarenka, having trailed in both sets, thought she had lost the match “about 25 times”, declared “my heart is going to jump out of my body’’ and repeatedly felt like she was “running behind the train’’.

The last Ukrainian in either singles tournament also has a whole lot else going on, of course, including a Russian rocket landing on her grandmother’s house while Yastremska was playing at the Brisbane International.

“The war, of course, it’s affected us, well, a lot, because you cannot go home like you wanted, when you wanted, like it was before. You always read the news. You always see the videos,’’ says the 23-year-old.

“It’s tough emotionally to play, but the worst thing is you feel like you were already accepting this, what is happening. And people are starting to forget about what is going on,’’ she continued, reluctant to revisit the subject, before adding that “just in general, it’s tough to play, but after two years you get to manage already how to deal with all the emotions and with everything that is going on inside’’.

The world No.93, once as high as 21st, who upset Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round, said she had been adding to her own degree of difficulty in different ways, including “that it’s the war and I have to show better results, you know, for Ukraine.

“And I wasn’t playing just for myself in the beginning. Then I was putting pressure on myself that before, like, when I was younger, I was much better than I am right now. But now I decided that from this year no more pressure, no more, like, high expectations for myself. Just be the way you are, and we will see how it’s gonna go.’’

Pretty well so far, as it is for 75th-ranked Kalinskaya, who has also logged a grand slam PB by reaching the last eight, having never won a grand slam match outside the four first rounds at the US Open until this year at Melbourne Park.

The Russian may be slightly familiar to Australians as a supposed ex-flame of Nick Kyrgios, the 25-year-old declaring after their split in 2020 that the pair were definitely “not friends’’ and referring to Kyrgios as “Satan” after he commented on one of her social media posts.

Back on court, the aggressive ball-striker has a 1-0 career lead against Zheng who will break into the WTA’s top 10 on Monday, regardless of whether she improves on her quarter-final result from last year’s US Open.

“With the other three, Noskova is definitely the easier story for people to grasp immediately because she beat the top seed, so that’s huge, she’s outstanding, and she’s still going,’’ Johnston says.

“The other stories you almost have to learn, but you learn in time, and in a short period of time you’ve got to learn a lot, whereas everyone can relate to the top seed being bundled out by the kid.

“As good as the others are, it’s just trickier, because you’ve got the constraints of eastern European backgrounds in terms of global appeal, and this is trying to be a global event. But that’s the challenge of the business - to keep coming up with the story lines.”

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Which circles back to fourth-seeded Gauff, who trailed 1-5 against Kostyuk, before winning slightly ugly — to borrow the title from coach Brad Gilbert’s autobiography she is yet to read.

“It was a fight,’’ the ultra-impressive young American said in the interview room. “I think today was definitely a ‘C’ game, so didn’t play my best tennis but really proud that I was able to get through today’s match. Hopefully got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better.’’

Take it from the AO marketing team: for the tournament itself, there would be far worse results.