Svitolina delivers tactical masterclass to make Australian Open quarter-finals

Elina Svitolina, the No 28 seed, reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open by defeating Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 6-1 at Melbourne Park on Monday.

The Ukrainian executed a brilliant display of intelligent tennis to overcome an early deficit, falling behind 4-1 early in the opening set.

She soon found her range and began extracting errors from Kudermetova, however, who took a medical timeout at 5-4 in the first set for what appeared to be an abdominal issue. With Svitolina’s smart ball placement and Kudermetova’s condition, the Russian ended on almost twice as many unforced errors as Svitolina (27 to 14).

“I was just trying to fight, you know, put this fighting spirit,” she said. “It’s the only thing you can do when things are not going your way. You really just try to put your head down and get back to work. My team helped me a lot to stay on track.

“Just really happy I could come back into the match and win in straight sets.

“I feel like the mental part played a big part here.”

Third Australian Open quarter-final for Svitolina

The win means Svitolina has now made the Australian Open quarter-finals three times, having made this stage of the tournament in 2018 and 2019.

“It was a lifetime ago,” the Ukrainian said of her last run to the quarters in Melbourne. “So many things happened, having our daughter Sky, surgery.

“I’m really pleased with the performance throughout this tournament. Just really enjoying this win today.

“It’s a really amazing feeling to go this deep in this kind of tournament. In the Grand Slams it’s extra special.”

Svitolina, ranked No 27, will play the winner of the match between Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the No 6 seed, and American Madison Keys, the No 19 seed, next.

In the previous rounds of the first Grand Slam tournament of the 2025 season, the Ukrainian won against Romanian Sorana Cirstea (6-4, 6-4), American Caroline Dolehide (6-1, 6-4) and Italian Jasmine Paolini, the No 4 seed (2-6, 6-4, 6-0).

Kudermetova, ranked No 75, beat Australian Olivia Gadecki (6-1, 6-1), No 22 seed Katie Boulter (7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2) and Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, the No 15 seed (6-4, 6-2) earlier in the tournament.

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 60.627.573, most recent results first):

• Eva Lys vs. Iga Swiatek
• Emma Navarro vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Elena Rybakina vs. Madison Keys
• Paula Badosa (11) beat Olga Danilovic: 6-1, 7-6 (2)
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (27) beat Donna Vekic (18): 7-6, 6-0
• Coco Gauff (3) beat Belinda Bencic: 5-7, 6-2, 6-1
• Aryna Sabalenka (1) beat Mirra Andreeva (14): 6-1, 6-2