Magda Linette always had it in her.
Good enough to defeat Ons Jabeur at the French Open last year, good enough to make the third round of all four majors and reach a career-high ranking of 33, her ability was never in doubt. Yet Linette, the Polish world No 45, was never quite able to take the next step, top-30 status eluding her as stubbornly as a place in the second week of a grand slam.
All that has changed at the Australian Open, where Linette pulled off a stunning 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 victory over Caroline Garcia, the fourth seed and WTA Finals champion, to claim a place in the quarter-finals. No one would have predicted she would be the last Pole standing, but defeats for her United Cup team-mates Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz have left the 30-year-old as the lone standard bearer for her country, and how she has earned it.
“I’ve been in third rounds so many times that I knew I’m capable,” said Linette. “I think it was more frustrating than that I would wonder or worry about it.”
There was certainly plenty of frustration for Garcia, who led by a double break early in the opening set and later served for it. When the Frenchwoman is in full flight, her unflinching commitment to attack is thrilling to behold. But Garcia can also be her own worst enemy and, on a day when she sprayed 33 unforced errors, her refusal to entertain a Plan B was glaring.
“She played a great match, and obviously I made some mistakes, and that hurt,” said Garcia, who capped a resurgent summer last year by making her first grand slam semi-final at the US Open.
“I need a little time. It’s a very fresh loss. It’s always hurting and always tough to go through.”
Take nothing away from Linette, though, who showed tremendous fortitude to absorb the early punishment meted out by Garcia and work her way back into the contest. The Pole is an outstanding athlete and a fine ball-striker, particularly off her preferred backhand wing, from which she produced some stunning winners. Yet it was her equilibrium in the face of Garcia’s aggressive, early returns and incessant net-rushing that set the pair apart down the home straight.
As the Frenchwoman raged at her lack of consistency, swatting the court with her racket as her forehand flew long and her first serve stats dropped to a meagre 44%, Linette was a study in composure. It is an area she has been working hard on since last summer, and she has reaped the dividends in Australia, earning fine wins over Jil Teichmann and Lucia Bronzetti at the United Cup and beating a trio of seeds in Melbourne, where she has also accounted for Anett Kontaveit and Ekaterina Alexandrova.
“We worked a lot [on] my emotional management,” said Linette, who will Karolina Pliskova, a 6-0, 6-4 winner over China’s Shuai Zhang, in the last eight. “Dealing with losses, but not necessarily match losses, just [mid-match] losses, small mistakes here and there. I think I’ve never really deal with them very well. They carried over later on for next point, then another one. It was taking me just too long to get over them.
“This approach of really trying to look [at things] a little bit differently, grow up a little bit emotionally, was a big thing.”
Another player who has been doing things differently is Aryna Sabalenka, the fifth seed, who remains unbeaten in 2023 after firing 32 winners as she came through 7-5, 6-2 against Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic.
“I’m just trying to stay calm on court and just wait for the opportunities,” said Sabalenka.
The Belarusian will face Donna Vekic in the quarter-finals after the Croatian defeated the Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.