Magda Linetta was the surprise package of the 2023 Australian Open women’s singles tournament.
With a compatriot and number one in the world Iga Swiatek look like a Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the fourth round, Linette was left under the flag of Poland.
And by surprise, he wins Anett Kontaveit, Ekaterina Aleksandrova and fourth place Carolina Garcia it provided her with the best performance in a major 30-year groove Carolina Pliskowa advance to his first tennis Grand Slam semi-final.
With the current highest score of 33rd and two championship titles at the WTA International level (currently classified as WTA 250), the Pozna? player lost in the third round of Grand Slams at least six times.
That all changed in Melbourne, and 13 years after playing his first tournaments on the ITF circuit, he will break into the world top 30 for the first time.
Speaking on court after his victory over Pliskova, Linette credited his run in Melbourne change of mentalitysaying, “I think I’ve taken mistakes and failures very personally all my life. So disconnecting as a tennis player and as a person was really hard because many times I felt that mistakes defined me.
“My trainers did a really great job and I’m really grateful to them because they really put up with a lot of cr*p.”
“I’m so emotional. I really can’t believe it. It really is a dream come true. I am very grateful and happy. I will never forget it. It will stay with me for life.”
Magda Linette: Struggles on the road
Early successes as a teenager saw her mentioned as a potential successor to Poland Agnieszka Radwanska which reached No. 2 in the world after losing the 2012 Wimbledon final to Serena Williams.
But Linette’s low world ranking meant she had to qualify for the main draw of most WTA tournaments. And it wasn’t until 2015, thanks in part to her victory at the WTA 125 Ningbo International Open, that she managed to break into the top 100.
Linette who trained in Guangzhou from 2014-18 before working with the British coach Brand Gellard in Florida, she had to wait another four years to win her first WTA Main Tour title.
It came to the Bronx Open in New York when she defeated Camila Giorgi in the final to enter the world top 50 just before the US Open.
After losing in the second round at Flushing Meadows to the defending champion Naomi Osakalost to Karolina Muchowa in the Korea Open final.
She did not have to wait long for her second WTA triumph, defeating the Swiss Leonie Kung win the Hua Hin Championship in Thailand in February 2020 and move up to No. 33 in the world.
Magda Linette: the new mentality pays off
After the start of the 2021 season was interrupted by a knee injury, Linette announced that she had engaged with former coach Radwa?ska David the Celt.
The move had immediate results as she defeated the top seed Ashleigh Barty at the French Open and reached the doubles semi-final with Bernard Per.
Linette made another surprise at Wimbledon, knocking out third place Elina Svitolina before going to Paul Bados.
After returning to former coach Gellard, there were further signs of a breakthrough in 2022 as she released a runner-up He is Jabeur in the first round of the French Open before progressing to an eventual semi-finalist Martyna Trevisan.
Prior to Roland Garros, she secured her first WTA doubles title at the WTA 500 Charleston Open with Slovenia Andrzej Klepacz.
She joined the team in June Aleksandra Krunic won the women’s doubles at the Eastbourne International but was again knocked out early at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Linette then reached the final of the Chennai Open, where she won the first set before losing to the 17-year-old Czech prodigy Linda Fruhvirtova.
However, she says the turning point in her career was the October WTA 125 tournament in Tampico, Mexico.
She said WTA“In the first set, I played one girl and she gave me a lot of trouble. I was in tears in the first half. My coaches were very surprised by this.
“I felt like I let all that anger out. That was the last time I really lost him. I’ve really been in better control of him since then.”
Linette made it to the finals, going down to Italy Elizabeth Cocciarettobut ended the season with a win Madison keys and Pliskov at the Billie Jean King Cup in Glasgow, UK.
After a less grueling pre-season than in the past – “We thought, ‘OK, I’m not that young anymore.'” – Celt, acting as the coach of the Polish national team in the United Cup, told her that “this would be her season” as reported sport.pl.
Now she cleared her block in the third round at Slams and then some.
Speaking about her quarter-final victory over Pliskova, she said, “When I started beating players like Ash Barty and then Ons, it gave me an extra kick that really showed me that I can really go far in these tournaments. I think it was more frustrating than wondering or worrying about it. I think it was just more frustrating why I couldn’t do it.”
In the middle of last year, she realized she had to change the way she dealt with failure during and after matches.
“Dealing with losses of some kind, not necessarily losing matches, just ‘losing’ throughout the match, like little mistakes here and there, I don’t think I ever handled them very well. They then moved on to the next one point, then another. It took me too long to deal with them.
“Of course we worked a lot on my game. We worked a lot on changing the direction and depth of the ball. But I think this approach of really looking a little different, growing up emotionally a little bit, that was a big thing for us as a band.”
The approach clearly pays off, and after Melbourne, Linette will believe she can fight for more Grand Slams and perhaps join fellow Polish woman Swiatek in the world’s top 10.
