Linette tops Garcia to reach Australian Open Quarter-Finals

Magda Linette showed ease to defeat Caroline Garcia in straight sets in the fourth round of the Australian Open

The Frenchwoman came in as the heavy favorite and quickly rallied from two breaks to lead 3-0. It seemed like an easy match for the World No. 4, but the Pole woke up and began to play better, earning two breaks, the second being when Garcia served to win the set, leaving the score at 5-5. It came to the tie-break and the Pole was more precisely before a frustrated García, winning it 7-3. In the first set Garcia had 19 unforced errors against 7 for Linette.

In the second set the 4th seed entered with a better attitude, but in the first games she continued to be inconsistent, making several unforced errors and little by little losing control. At 4-4, García received a warning for verbal abuse, and minutes later he lost his serve, with several unforced errors. Finally, Linette closed the match with her serve 6-4 and eliminated one of the favourites to win the firsr major of the year.

Now she’ll meet in the quarterfinals with the former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, who comes from eliminating the Chinese Shuai Zhang.