Bia Haddad Maia, 25, from São Paulo, is in the semifinals of the Australian Open, the Grand Slam tournament, a series with the four most important championships on the circuit. She and Kazakh partner Anna Danilina beat Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson and Russian Anastasia Potapova with partials of 4/6, 7/5 and 6/3, in the doubles bracket, this Tuesday (25).
The tennis player is the first Brazilian to reach the semifinals in Australia in the open tennis era. Another from São Paulo, Luísa Stefani, 24, reached the semifinals of the US Open last year.
Bia and Danilna will play in the semifinals against Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara, who beat Croatian Petra Martic and American Shelby Rogers.
“I know we don’t play our best tennis, but we try to fight and raise our level. We knew that in tennis things change very fast”, said the athlete in an interview shortly after the match.
The Brazilian’s campaign is considered historic at the Australian Open. In addition to being the first Brazilian semifinalist in the open era (from 1968 onwards), Bia achieved the best result for Brazilian women since 1965, when Maria Esther Bueno reached the semifinals.
Greatest Brazilian tennis player in history, Maria Esther won the Australian tournament in 1960.
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