Qualifier Maria Timofeeva grew to become the lowest-ranked girl within the Australian Open fourth spherical since 2017 on Friday when she upset tenth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia to maintain her fairytale run going.
Enjoying at her first Grand Slam, the 20-year-old confirmed nerves of metal to down the Brazilian 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 on Margaret Court docket Area.
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The victory added to her burgeoning fame, having already overwhelmed former champion Caroline Wozniacki.
She joins one other younger Russian, Mirra Andreeva, within the final 16 and can play unseeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk for a spot within the quarterfinals.
At 170 on this planet, Timofeeva is the lowest-ranked girl to get up to now in Melbourne since Germany’s Mona Barthel seve years in the past.
“It looks like a fairytale, however with the assist of this superb crowd, I really feel like something is feasible,” she mentioned. “That is all a brand new expertise and I’m having fun with each second of it.
“As soon as I acquired to the principle draw, I believed why not keep longer and revel in this so long as doable and that basically is the motivation.”
Timofeeva was damaged in her first service recreation by the Brazilian.
However she stored her cool to interrupt again and take the primary set to a tie-break, the place she saved a set level earlier than a Haddad Maia double fault at 8-7 price her.
Along with her confidence constructing, the Russian broke Haddad Maia to like for a 2-0 lead in set two and by no means relinquished the lead as she stamped her authority on the match.
Timofeeva was equally spectacular towards 2018 champion Wozniacki, displaying energy and grit to haul herself again into that contest and finally prevail 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.