DrHis message on her shirt was clear. The phrase “Unstoppable Queen” was written in gold letters on the dark jersey that Serena Williams wore at the press conference after reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals. On her way to her long-awaited 24th Grand Slam title, the top female candidate on Sunday in Melbourne did not allow her to be stopped by Arena Sabalenka of Belarus, who has been very strong recently. The 39-year-old won 6: 4, 2: 6, 6: 4 in the Round of 16, with just three wins separating her from the Grand Slam record for Australia’s Margaret Court, who is sparking controversy due to her anti-gay and anti-lesbian statements.

On the other hand, the first thing that marked the tennis season came an abrupt end to Austrian Dominic Thiem. The US Open champion lost its 16th round to Bulgarian Gregor Dimitrov 4: 6, 4: 6, 0: 6 and was largely without a chance. Two days after winning five sets over Australian Nick Kyrgios, the 27-year-old world number three appeared broken and helpless. Tim was last year in the Melbourne Finals.

“The disappointment is great, of course,” said Tim, after his unexpectedly apparent defeat. “It was a mixture of several things: some physical thing, a really bad day, and then Gregor became just a good player as well,” said the Austrian. He did not want to go into more detail about his physical problems. I don’t want to make excuses. I’m not a machine, even if I want to be one. “

Williams converted her first match point at the Road Laver Arena after 2:09. “It was tough,” the tennis number one admitted a long time ago. “I just tried to stick with it,” said Williams. After winning the first set, the American made some tricks in the second round and conceded the division with 6: 2. But in the third set, she managed to break fast with a score of 3-1.