In her 30th major event, Magda Linette extended her career-best run at a Grand Slam, upsetting No.30 seed Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 7-5 on Wednesday to reach the Australian Open semifinals. 

"Maybe I still don't really believe it," Linette said with a smile in her post-match press conference.

On a sunny day on Rod Laver Arena, the No.45-ranked Linette needed 87 minutes to knock off Pliskova. Linette's run replenishes the Polish presence in the draw following the Round of 16 loss by No.1 Iga Swiatek.

Read more: Linette curbing negativity to break through at Australian Open

Breakthrough performance: Before this event, Linette, 30, had never progressed beyond the third round of a major, and she had lost in that round six times. But in the 30th major main draw, Linette is putting together the best Grand Slam run of her life.

Break Point: Netflix

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Pliskova became the fourth consecutive seeded player to fall to Linette  in Melbourne (No.16 Anett Kontaveit, No.19 Ekaterina Alexandrova and No.4 Caroline Garcia). Linette became the ninth oldest woman in the Open Era to reach a debut Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Linette, who is projected to make her Top 30 debut following this event, is the third Polish woman in the Open Era to make the Australian Open semifinals. She joins not only current Swiatek on that list, but also former World No.2 Agnieszka Radwanska, who was in attendance Wednesday watching Linette.

On the upswing: Pliskova came into the quarterfinals with a 7-2 head-to-head lead on Linette, but the Pole had rattled Pliskova in their past two meetings. Pliskova needed a third-set tiebreak to squeak out a win in the first round of last year’s US Open, and in their most recent encounter, Linette beat the Czech 6-4, 6-1 in the Billie Jean King Cup at the end of 2022.

Linette made it two wins in a row by matching Pliskova in winners -- 18 apiece -- while keeping her unforced error count at 16. Pliskova, on the other hand, was undone by 36 unforced errors.

"I think I did really well not to panic and still stay in the rally and go for the shots when I had the chance," Linette said. "That was, I think, something I did the best."

Key moments: Linette was broken in the first game of the match but that was her only loss of serve all day, and she immediately pulled back level at 1-1. Linette opened the 3-2 game by following a backhand slice with a winning drop shot, and she broke Pliskova at love from there.

Serving for the set at 5-3, Linette had to stare down a break point after a blistering forehand by Pliskova, but Linette pulled her way out of trouble to move a set away from her first major semifinal.

In the second set, Pliskova erased three break points in each of her service games at 2-2 and 3-3, but she faltered at 5-5 with two straight double faults and a subsequent forehand miscue. Linette grabbed her opportunity, converting her first match point at 6-5.

Read more: Sabalenka soars into first Australian Open semifinal

Sabalenka next: Linette will face her fifth seeded player in a row when she takes on No.5 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals. The winner will reach her first Grand Slam final. Sabalenka has won both of their previous meetings in straight sets.

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"I will just try what I'm doing this whole week," Linette said, looking ahead to the semifinal. "I'm being very consistent, returning really well, and keeping my serves. I think she will be, you know, just a little bit more consistent version of being aggressive on every single shot. I will just need to serve really well again.

"I will try to do my best on the return, and I have been doing that pretty well the last two matches, especially when the opponent was kind of similar."