Qinwen Zheng reaches maiden Grand Slam semi-final with victory over Anna Kalinskaya at Australian Open

Qinwen Zheng progressed to the semi-finals of the Australian Open courtesy of a 6-7(4) 6-3 6-1 win against Anna Kalinskaya.

The 21-year-old Chinese star nicknamed ‘Queen Wen’ hit back from a set down to oust the plucky Russian world No.75, winning 10 of the last 11 games to seal her progression in emphatic fashion.

She becomes the fourth Chinese woman after Zheng Jie, Li Na and Peng Shuai to reach a Grand Slam semi-final and the youngest from her country to achieve the feat.

Zheng – seeded 12th – will now face Dayana Yastremska for a spot in the final. Should she navigate that, Aryna Sabalenka or Coco Gauff will await.

“I’m so happy right now,” said Zheng

“I am really excited and really happy to be in the semi-finals, especially with such a good performance like this.”

Exchanges of breaks – in games one and two and five and six – sent the first set to a tie-break. That decider followed the flow of the set, with a see-sawing of breaks leaving it on serve with Zheng holding the advantage at 4-3.

However, she lost four points on the bounce – the final two on her serve – to cede it to Kalinskaya.

And with the Russian holding a one-set lead, and going toe-to-toe with her more vaunted opponent in the next, a semi-final showdown between world No. 75 Kalinskaya and world No. 93 Yastremska was a distinct possibility.

However, a wobble arrived from the world No. 75 in the eighth game of the second and Zheng capitalised, taking the first break opportunity of the set. The world No. 15 then served it out to 15, sealing it with an ace to set up a one-set shootout.

That wobble developed into a collapse when Zheng broke to love in the third game of the decider, and again in the fifth and seventh to progress to the last four.