Rybakina recovers from a set down against Tomljanovic to reach Wimbledon semi-final

Elena Rybakina beat Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Wednesday afternoon. She’ll play Romanian Simona Halep, the No 16 seed, in the next round

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in action during her quarter final match against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic (AI/Reuters/Panoramic)

Tennis Majors

July 6, 2022

Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the No 17 seed, won against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to move into her first Slam semi-final. Rybakina, ranked No 23, will face Romanian Simona Halep, the No 16 seed, next for a place in the Wimbledon final.

“It is amazing,” she said on court afterwards. “I’m really happy that I got through to the semi-final. It was a really tough match. I started a bit slow, I didn’t start that well, maybe I was nervous. Ajla played really well, she was defending well. I tried to focus on my serve and find my way, and I found it.”

She is the first Kazakh female player to reach the semifinals in a Grand Slam, and obviously, she will play her first Grand Slam semi-final.

🇰🇿 The first player from Kazakhstan to reach a Grand Slam semifinal 🇰🇿

Elena Rybakina | #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/Dq4ycqYaS2
— wta (@WTA) July 6, 2022

Rybakina lost her first set of the tournament against Tomljanovic. Ahead of her victory, the Kazakh beat American lucky loser Coco Vandeweghe (7-6 (2), 7-5), Canadian Bianca Andreescu (6-4, 7-6 (5)), Chinese Qinwen Zheng (7-6 (4), 7-5) and Croat Petra Martic (7-5, 6-3).

Tomljanovic, ranked No 44, played her second consecutive quarter-final in London. She defeated Swiss Jil Teichmann, the No 18 seed (6-2, 6-3), American qualifier Catherine Harrison (6-2, 6-2), Czech Barbora Krejcikova, the No 13 seed (2-6, 6-4, 6-3) and Frenchwoman Alize Cornet (4-6, 6-4, 6-3) earlier in the tournament.