ANETT KONTAVEIT SAYS that reaching her first Grand Slam quarter-final helps banish the heartbreak of pulling out of the US Open with an illness that torpedoed her 2019 season and required surgery.
The 24-year-old became the first Estonian woman to reach the last eight in Melbourne after battling past Polish teenager Iga Swiatek 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 7-5 in 2 hours and 42 minutes.
The 28th seed faces a tough test next against fourth seed Simona Halep, one of the favourites for the title.
Kontaveit has had a turbulent few months, and was forced to pull out of her third-round clash with Belinda Bencic in New York after falling unwell with a viral illness.
She later required surgery and did not play a match for the rest of last year.
“It was really hard, so tough to retire at a Grand Slam. It was a really tough couple of months after that,” she said, after holding off a late charge from the 18-year-old Swiatek.
“But I’m so happy I’m through that now. I started training in mid-November, and it’s been only uphill (getting better) from there,” Kontaveit added with a smile.
The Estonian’s return to full form and fitness was in evidence when she thrashed the Swiss sixth seed Bencic 6-0, 6-1 in the third round in Melbourne.
Her British coach Nigel Sears says her forced exit at the US Open checked some stunning momentum at Flushing Meadows, where she was the 21st seed.
“(She) got an internal infection that got out of control very quickly,” he said at the Australian Open.
“I suddenly had a phone call early in the morning that she was on her way to hospital, she ended up being hospitalised for a week in New York and then had surgery for a procedure to remove an abscess.
“She couldn’t do anything for three or four months, lost quite a lot of weight. It was hugely disappointing.”
All that was forgotten on Monday when Kontaveit recovered from a set down to unseeded Swiatek, holding off the teenager’s recovery from 5-1 down in the decider for a victory that she said left her shaking.
Poland’s Swiatek, the youngest player left in the draw after Coco Gauff’s exit, grabbed the first set on a tie-break but Kontaveit finally prevailed.
Swiatek, who shocked Croat 19th seed Donna Vekic in the third round, needed a medical timeout and heavy strapping to her left thigh before the start of the second set.
Neither player could consistently hold serve and they exchanged breaks throughout the second set, but the more experienced Kontaveit finally held in game 11 and broke once more to level the match.
Kontaveit motored into a 5-1 lead in the deciding set before Swiatek threatened a late comeback, winning four games in a row for 5-5 before the Estonian held serve and then broke for the match.
However, it now gets tougher for Kontaveit and two-time Grand Slam champion Halep will be the strong favourite in their last-eight encounter.
“She’s incredibly consistent,” said the Estonian. “She’s playing so well, moving so well, and I have definitely got to be consistent but try and play my game and be aggressive.”
Elsewhere, two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza underlined her return to form as she beat ninth seed Kiki Bertens in 68 minutes to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals.
The unseeded former world number one won 6-3, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena and faces German 17th seed Angelique Kerber or 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in the last eight.
Just three of the top 10 seeds remain — top seed Ashleigh Barty and seventh seed Petra Kvitova meet in the quarter-finals.
The other is Halep who plays Kontaveit.
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Big, big blow for us and of course Pat Lam, Willie has been a fantastic signing since arriving last season as his regular Player of the Month and Supporters Player of the Season award testified (beating Henshaw & Marmion in the process) .
His loss is best exemplified by the change-around in the second half against Ulster, after he went off at 46mins.
A real pity as a run of games would have given him the chance to impress Joe Schmidt, but like every season if you get injured and miss out the AI squads, you’ll not be considered for the 6N’s. But hopefully Schmidt will incorporate a more traditional 7 in his line up to help slow down oppo ball and speed up our own, and he might get a shot in the future…