Magda Linette reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the age of 30 with a shock defeat of fourth seed Caroline Garcia at the Australian Open.
Poland’s Linette, ranked 45th in the world, won 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 against France’s Caroline Garcia, who became the latest seed to fall in Melbourne. The Pole had never before progressed past the third round of a major.
Elsewhere, fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka reached her first Australian Open quarter-final with a 7-5 6-2 win over Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic.
Belarusian Sabalenka is yet to drop a set at Melbourne Park this year while both she and 12th seed Bencic were on seven-match unbeaten runs coming into the fourth round.
Sabalenka, 24, will next play unseeded Donna Vekic in what will also be the Croatian’s first quarter-final in Melbourne.
Vekic defeated 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2 1-6 6-3, while Fruhvirtova’s Czech compatriot Pliskovabeat China’s Zhang Shuai 6-0 6-4 to set up her last-eight meeting with Linette.