Magda Linette reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the age of 30 with a shock defeat of fourth seed Caroline Garcia at the Australian Open.
Poland’s Linette, ranked 45th in the world, won 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 against France’s Garcia, who became the latest seed to fall in Melbourne.
She had never before progressed past the third round of a major.
“I don’t really believe it,” said Linette, who will face Karolina Pliskova in the last eight.
“I don’t know what happened. I’m speechless, really. I don’t know what to say.
“But I don’t want to say I didn’t expect it, because coming on the court I was confident in how well I’m playing.
Garcia had avoided an upset in the third round in a two-hour battle with Laura Siegemund and opened the first set against Linette with a break to take a 3-0 lead.
But erratic play allowed Linette to fight back, and when Garcia was serving for the first set at 5-4, Linette got the vital break back on her second attempt.
Linette – who made just eight unforced errors in the entire set – took the tie-break with ease before serving out the match after getting the break at 4-4 in the second set.
