The 2024 Wimbledon Championships delivered another dramatic day of women’s quarter-final action on Wednesday, as Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk turned in a masterclass performance to crush Italy’s Jasmine Paolini and book her spot in the final four of the grass-court Grand Slam. The 12th-seeded Kostyuk needed just 69 minutes on Wimbledon’s iconic Centre Court to secure a lopsided 6-3, 6-2 victory over 2023 runner-up Paolini, booking a semi-final showdown with Czech ninth seed Linda Noskova for Thursday. For Kostyuk, the run marks her second consecutive Grand Slam semi-final appearance, and a particularly poignant moment on the sport’s most famous showcourt.
Nine years before her quarter-final win, the 24-year-old Ukrainian visited the All England Club as a spectator, watching tennis legend Roger Federer compete on the very same court. “I was on this court as a spectator once nine years ago watching Roger (Federer) and to be back here as a player is amazing,” Kostyuk said after her first-ever Centre Court match at the championships. “I walked past the ‘wall of honour’, stood beside it and took a moment.”
Kostyuk enters Thursday’s semi-final on one of the hottest streaks in women’s tennis, having dropped just one match across her last 22 outings. That sole defeat came in the French Open semi-finals last month, where she lost to eventual champion Mirra Andreeva. For Paolini, the result brings an end to her 2024 Wimbledon run; the Italian could not replicate the clinical form that carried her to a fourth-round win over Alexandra Eala, falling at the quarter-final stage of a major for the first time in her career.
Standing between Kostyuk and a spot in her first Grand Slam final is 21-year-old Linda Noskova, who lived up to her top-seeded billing in the bottom half of the women’s draw to defeat experienced Belgian 25th seed Elise Mertens 6-3, 7-5 on Court One. The Czech has enjoyed a breakout grass-court season this year, claiming her second career WTA title in Berlin earlier this month before powering into her first ever Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon. After early upsets knocked out top contenders Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, Noskova became the highest remaining seed in the bottom half of the draw, and she delivered against Mertens, who was playing her first major quarter-final since 2020. Though Mertens fought hard throughout the two-set clash, she could not match Noskova’s aggressive power from the baseline.
Noskova acknowledged the challenge of facing in-form Kostyuk, who defeated the Czech in straight sets during the Madrid Open quarter-finals earlier this season, en route to lifting the Madrid title. “A tough one, it’s never going to be easy,” Noskova said of the upcoming semi-final. “Marta, she’s an incredible player.” The winner of Thursday’s clash will go on to compete for the Wimbledon crown on Saturday, against either American top seed Coco Gauff or Czech 10th seed Karolina Muchova.
In the men’s draw, the quarter-final round continues Wednesday with two matches that could set up a rematch of this year’s French Open men’s final. Second seed Alexander Zverev, who claimed his maiden Grand Slam title at Roland Garros last month, will face sixth-seeded American Taylor Fritz for a spot in the semi-finals. A win for Zverev would set up a repeat clash with Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, who he defeated in a five-set French Open final. If Cobolli defeats British wildcard Arthur Fery in his own quarter-final clash, the two will meet again for a spot in the Wimbledon final four.
Zverev enters the match as a respected contender, but he will face a tough test against Fritz, who has won seven consecutive matches against the German. Fritz boasts a proven record on grass, having reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals four times in the last five years, and his powerful serve makes him a dangerous opponent on the All England Club’s fast courts.
For Cobolli, the quarter-final run marks his second consecutive deep run at Wimbledon; 12 months ago, he fell to Novak Djokovic in the last eight, and this year he faces a very different opponent in Fery. The Italian entered the tournament with an unexpected off-court hurdle: he did not book extended accommodation in London, forcing an Italian family to step in and “give him a house in Wimbledon” to stay for his deep run. Cobolli enters the match as the heavy favorite against Fery, who is ranked world number 114 and the lowest-ranked men’s player to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals since Nick Kyrgios in 2014. However, Fery holds a win over Cobolli, having defeated the Italian in the first round of this year’s Australian Open — that win remains Fery’s only career Grand Slam match victory to date. If Fery upsets Cobolli, he will become the first men’s wildcard to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals since Goran Ivanisevic claimed his iconic title run in 2001. “I played really well in Australia,” Fery said. “Felt like I dominated the match. So we’ll use that experience for Wednesday.”