Aussie wildcards Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler are into the Australian Open doubles final.
Meanwhile in the night session the 2023 women’s finalists will be determined.
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‘Took me 10 f***** years to get over it’ | 01:53
SPECIAL Ks 2.0? AUSSIE WILDCARDS INTO THE FINAL
A year after Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis made a stunning run to the men’s doubles title at Melbourne Park, Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata are threatening to do the same.
Fresh off an upset of top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, the Australian wildcard pairing took down eighth seeds Horacio Zeballos and Marcel Granollers.
On their way to winning the opening set at Rod Laver Arena, Kubler produced a remarkable play, hitting a ball from the wrong side of the net.
The ball had bounced on Kubler’s side but then spun backwards towards the net (yet outside of it), allowing the Aussie to run past the ballkid and smash it from the Zeballos and Granollers side of the net.
“That’s one of the first shots I’ve seen in that regard, from Kubler – that was quite interesting,” Geoff Masters said on commentary.
“He is allowed to come around the net post there, as long as he doesn’t encroach onto the playing surface of the other team, so that’s quite legal.
“The ball has bounced on the correct side first, he’s allowed to come forward, as long as he doesn’t come onto the other playing surface. It was quite awkward in the end.”
After a break in the opening game of the second set, plus a double break late on, the Aussie pair served it out to win 6-4 6-2.
Asked whether they were expecting anything like this, Hijikata told Todd Woodbridge: “No, I was still pretty bummed about my singles match to be honest! But, yeah, I guess, wow, we’ll take it for sure.”
His teammate Kubler added: “Who would have thought, who would have thought. We both returned unbelievable. If any watched the match yesterday they saw Rinky lacing them, I was happy to do my part today.”
But the pair don’t exactly think teamwork is the key to their success.
“It’s funny because at some stages we’re just yelling at each other. I don’t know what he’s saying, he doesn’t know what I’m saying, he doesn’t know what I’m saying we’re just yelling,” Kubler said.
“There’s happens of energy and we both play better when there’s more energy. We’ll keep it going. I don’t know what the leader is but we’re doing pretty well right now.”
Kubler made the finals of last year’s Australian Open mixed doubles, partnering with Jamiee Fourlis but losing to veterans Kristina Mladenovic and Ivan Dodig.
The Aussies will face Monaco’s Hugo Nys and Poland’s Jan Zielinski in the final.
Final four locked in for Aus Open women | 01:11
WOMEN’S SEMIS PREVIEW
The Australian Open will be hoping to avoid an awkward reality in tonight’s women’s semi-finals at Melbourne Park.
Tennis Australia chose not to side with Wimbledon and instead permitted Russian and Belarusian players in this year’s tournament, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. Instead players from those nations are not listed with a nationality in official tournment documents, and on TV graphics they have a white flag instead of the national flag.
But an all-Belarusian final between Victoria Azarenka and Aryna Sabalenka is well and truly on the cards.
Sabalenka was one of the favourites to make it out of her half of the draw, given it was the weaker side, and is expected to beat unseeded Pole Magda Linette in tonight’s second match.
Linette is making her 30th grand slam appearance but this is her first time past the third round.
On the other side, 2012 and 2013 champion Azarenka battles Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina – who isn’t exactly exempt from the drama around national exclusion either.
Rybakina grew up in Russia but chose to represent Kazakhstan (an Asian nation very close politically to Russia) as an adult. She was thus permitted to play Wimbledon and won it, in the process not earning any ranking points.
With those ranking points Rybakina would’ve been a top-10 player at this event making her run past players like world No.1 Iga Swiatek somewhat more expected.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN DAY 11 – ORDER OF PLAY (All times AEDT)
Semi-finals
Rod Laver Arena
Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler (AUS) def [8] Marcel Granollers (ESP) and Horatio Zeballos (ARG), 6-4 6-2
Night session from 7:30pm
[22] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) v [24] Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
Magda Linette (POL) v [5] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR)
Recap the Australian Open in the blog below!
