Melbourne: American tennis player Sofia Kenin on Tuesday advanced to the semi-final of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career as she ended the historic run of Tunisian Ons Jabeur at the Australian Open.
The 14th seed defeated Jabeur 6-4, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Australian Open and faces top seed Ashleigh Barty or Czech seventh seed Petra Kvitova in the last four in Melbourne.
The Moscow-born 21-year-old, who defeated American 15-year-old Gauff in the previous round, said that she was "super-excited".
"It was a tough match," said Kenin, who moved to New York as a baby with her family with just a few hundred dollars to their name.
Kenin said that holding her serve at 3-2 down in the second set in a game that stretched to 10 minutes was the turning point.
"It was a tough moment, she was playing well. I didn't know it was 10 minutes but it felt pretty long," she said.
"But after that I got my momentum and started playing better." Kenin broke Jabeur in the third game of the first set for a 2-1 lead at Rod Laver Arena.
The 78th-ranked Jabeur, the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final, struck back for 3-3 but Kenin, also contesting her first Major quarter-final, immediately broke again and then fought to hold serve to go up 5-3.